AN entertainer from Okehampton who is preparing for next year’s London Marathon has spoken on how running has helped his mental health since losing his son.

Entertainingly Different’s Rob Pudner will be running to raise funds for the Sick Children’s Trust, a charity which supported Rob and his family during his son Tobias’s [T’s] illness.

T was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital nearly two years ago for what was supposed to be a 10 day stay. He ended up staying for four months and, during that time, the Sick Children’s Trust provided his family with accommodation close to the hospital so they could stay nearby. T later passed away in January 2025.

Rob is a former cross-country runner and has now decided to put on his running shoes again in honour of T.

He said: “A lot of people said to me, 'Will you be wearing a spotty suit? Will you be wearing some outrageous outfit?' And I said probably not because actually I feel I just want to do this as Tobias's father, as me, as a father that's on this kind of grief journey.

“Running has been fantastic for my physical and mental health, and it gives me the drive of raising money for a charity that’s so important to us, while still being able to stay connected with T and honour his name in a different way from being the showman all the time.

“I was never somebody that reached out to other people for help and support, but I've had to learn to do that,” he said. “I’ve always been the person who's been big and brave and strong for everybody else—that's been something I've had to kind of go, actually, it's okay to be a bit weak yourself or show vulnerability yourself.”

He admits, though, that grief is a journey with no end destination.

"It doesn't get better; it gets different… I will not accept that I've lost my son, but I will learn to live with it. I will not try and fill the hole because it's so, so big you can never fill it, but I am learning to build around it. I'm always very compassionate to other people, but trying to show compassion to myself and give myself a little bit of compassion—that's the bit that I need to keep reminding myself.”

Rob now hopes by sharing his own experience he might help other grieving parents.

“Everybody's grief journey is different,” he said. “Everybody processes things in a very different way. But I would say that actually there are moments of light still to be found, even in the darkest of kind of hours. You can try and find areas of light, and you've got to understand that you need to be able to let the light in where you can.

“Do the things that help you connect. So, I've worn particular outfits. I've dressed in orange. I've built sandcastles. I've planted sunflowers. I've put on shows. I've done lots of things where I've been able to connect and grow in a particular way.”