BETH Addicott from Ashwater ran the London Marathon, to raise funds for the CLIC Sargent charity.

Twenty years ago, when Beth was eight years old, she had life saving surgery to remove a brain tumour at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. 

At the time CLIC Sargent provided fantastic support for Beth, and accommodation for her family close to the hospital so that they could remain nearby whilst she was most poorly. 

Every year since Beth’s illness the Addicott family, with the unfailing support of the Holsworthy community, have raised funds for CLIC Sargent at the annual St Peter’s Fair Day charity breakfast. 

This year Beth, who doesn’t claim to be athletic, decided that it was time for her to buy a pair of trainers and run for the charity. She finished the 26.2-mile marathon in a time of 4 hours 18 minutes.

Beth said: “It was really good fun, I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve been training since October so it’s been a long time coming!”

Beth received a lot of support from her family, who were able to be there on the day.

“It was lovely, all my family came to watch and I managed to see them at mile 25 — I definitely needed that because at around mile 22 my legs started to go, well, they started to go at mile 18, so by 25 they were basically gone. Seeing my family really spurred me on to the finish.”

Beth said she was ‘chuffed’ with the time she managed as she was able to beat her target time, however it wasn’t plain sailing though as Beth had been plagued by injury: “I was hoping for 4 hours 30 minutes so when I hit 4 hours 18 minutes I was chuffed. I was especially pleased as I have had some problems with injury, I guess everyone does though as there wasn’t one person who wasn’t strapped up.

“The time wasn’t really something I was thinking about when I signed up. I wanted to challenge myself but I guess I got quite competitive with myself by the end. However, the main aim for me was to give something back to CLIC who supported my family when I was in hospital.

“They were amazing and I wanted to be able to help them support another family the way they supported me and my family — it is great to know I will be able to help someone in that way.”

Beth has already raised in excess of £4,500. It’s not too late to donate — visit her fund raising page at justgiving.com/fundraising/b-addicott