Ben's triple marathon challenge for Children on the Edge

Later this year, the Children on the Edge Chichester Half Marathon will be back for a third year, but to keep our runners busy in the meantime, we have the Spring Marathon season sweeping across the UK!  

This year we have seven runners taking on marathons (including the Virgin Money London Marathon and the Brighton Marathon) in order to raise money for Children on the Edge. 

Over the next few weeks we will introduce to you to a few of our Brighton Marathon runners, but right now we’d like you to meet our 2014 London Marathon runner,  Ben Geralds.  As a former employee of The Body Shop, Ben has been involved in fundraising initiatives for Children on the Edge before. Ben started running in 2011 to keep in shape after giving up rugby in his early twenties.  After getting the running bug, Ben has been running regularly and when he heard we had a place available for the London Marathon 2014, he jumped at the chance to apply for it.

“Having a keen interest in sport, I have always had running a Marathon on my Bucket list, with the London Marathon for me as the pinnacle of all marathons to run in the world. When I lost 10st between July 2011 and May 2012, this became an achievable target, and in December 2012 I ran the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon (in what can only be described as a bog!), in just over 4:30hrs. I was then lucky enough to hear about the opportunity to run the 2014 London Marathon on behalf of Children on the Edge, jumped at the chance and was incredibly lucky and honoured to be selected to fly the flag.”

Taking on the challenge of one marathon is a big enough task for most runners but Ben has decided to take it even further:

“I think fundraising for such an amazing charity needs to be extra special. Therefore I have taken the plunge to run not one but three marathons in 2014 – Brighton, London and Berlin – all wearing my Children on the Edge colours. Any amount of awareness that I can raise alongside my fundraising will be fantastic and I’m proud to be able to do this – even at 6am at the start of my long training runs!”

Three marathons is an incredible feat of running and we are completely in awe of Ben’s dedication both to his running and his fundraising.  His target is £2,500 and his company have kindly agreed to match what Ben raises.

It costs just £100 a month to provide pre-school education for 10 children at the Child Friendly Space in Soweto Slum, Uganda. This has become a community-changing programme that protects, educates and nourishes vulnerable children. The money Ben, and our other runners, raise this spring will go towards transforming communities like this and returning childhood to hundreds of children living on the edge of their societies.

If you’d like to support Ben in his marathon efforts, please visit his JustGiving page. 

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