Each year, The Gauchers Association is able to offer charity places to individuals wanting to take part in the London Marathon. We have been lucky enough to fill our places quickly each year and are so grateful to all of our runners for raising both vital funds and awareness for The Gauchers Association.
Please contact Su in the Gaucher office on 020 3011 1789 or email su@gaucher.org.uk to register your interest and then as soon as places become available, Su will be in touch.
We provide you with all you need for the race and ask in return that you raise a minimum of £1,500 in sponsorship to take part.
Please find a personal account from Gary Brooke who ran the London Marathon on behalf of The Gauchers Association in 2024.
My name is Gary and I work as a project manager for Freeline Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company based in Stevenage, just North of London. Freeline are hoping to revolutionise the treatment of Gaucher disease through the use of gene therapy. In fact we have now reported on some early data from the first 5 patients treated in our first clinical trial and the results look really promising so far (LINK). It would be great to think that one day those with Gaucher could be treated with a single injection that would provide many years, if not a lifetime of healthy, symptom free life. This was one of the principle reasons why I went down the medical science career path - knowing that what I was doing could really make a difference to peoples lives one day.
However, given our efforts to help those with the disease, we still need to do more to engage with the Gauches community themselves. This is always difficult when you are so far removed from the day to day struggles of those suffering with the disease and being quite rare, those with Gaucher are quite spread out! With that in mind, it was great to hear that the Gauchers Association were looking for volunteer fund-raisers to run in the London Marathon. Running a London marathon has always been on my bucket list of things that I wished to achieve during my life, so this would be a great opportunity do that whilst helping to raise the general awareness of Gaucher and support the association financially.
Although I try to keep fit with regular jogging, this is generally no more than 30 minutes a day, so doing a London Marathon was a big step up! Not only that but now that I’m in my 50s a host of chronic physical issues (obviously minor compared to those with Gaucher!), such as achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are a constant struggle, so careful training would be required. However, I embraced the challenge and set to work slowly building up my training miles over the cold, dark, wet winter months. And boy was it a wet, so much so that I completely destroyed two pairs of trainers. Then disaster struck as I came down with covid quickly followed by the dreaded “100 day cough” during January and February. This really set me back as I could hardly train at all during this period and struggled to get going again afterwards. But I was determined! This might be my only chance, so during March I managed to almost get back on track with some really intensive training and achieved several half marathons, followed by an 18 mile run a fortnight before the race. These seemed to go fine, although I was aware it was still a big step up to the full marathon.
I rose early on the day of the marathon and with nervous trepidation set off with the multitudes to reach Blackheath for the start. I was expecting crowds but was truly astonished at the sight of such vast numbers of people. I was also numbed by the strength sapping cold Northerly wind that swept the park, however, the atmosphere was amazing and after much shivering and foot stomping our wave set off to the support from the crowds lining the route. I cannot emphasise enough the support that the crowds gave which was incredible – and it went on and on, all along the route - bands, performers, well-wishers, and not forgetting the crazy runners in crazy outfits! Huge respect to them. The London Marathon App meant that friends and family as well as the Gaucher Team could keep track of us and they all did their best to see us and get their voices heard as we ran past, no mean feat with 1000s cheering relentlessly. The first half of the race was fantastic, I felt full of energy and ran a good pace as far as Tower Bridge. Then I seemed to hit an invisible barrier and cramp started setting in! I had obviously made the classic mistake of going too fast, too early and was now going to pay the price big time in the second half. And I mean big time, wow, the discomfort was incredible, my legs turned into lead ingots! I had to slow right down and really dig deep - those last 6 miles seemed to last forever. However, with the continuing support of the crowds and a welcome but brief family meeting at the side of the route, I finally made my way through Westminster to the Mall. The sight of the finish line was a very, very welcome sight. Afterwards, I fought my way through the crowds and managed to meet up with Dan, Su and Emily of the Gauchers Association and have a few words, followed by a very slow shuffle home. I could barely move my legs the next day, or the following! But was almost back to normal before too long.
So, what day! One that will live long in the memory. Thankyou so much to the Gauchers Association team for giving me the opportunity. Hopefully the funds raised will help them with their work in supporting those with Gauchers and who knows, I may be back again raising more money for them next year!!
