Despite having to pull out of last October’s Oxford Half Marathon due to illness, ETO’s Paul Smith [pictured right, with Britporn queen Cathy Barry] has bounced back to tackle two challenges for charity in the coming weeks. On May 25th he joins thousands to pound the streets of London in the BUPA 10000 race, while hoping to inspire others to support Marie Curie Cancer Care as his mother is currently recovering from lung cancer. His Just Giving page is www.Justgiving.com/10kOk and he said: “Any support would be amazing. My training hasn’t gone as well as planned for this event, thanks to a mixture of injury and laziness, but I still aim to improve on last year’s time for the 6.21 miles of 62 minutes.”
Paul is tackling the 62Km/39-mile coast path of Guernsey the following month in one foot-punishing go for the stillbirth and miscarriage charity Sands as this is also a cause close to his heart. As he explained: “The tragedy of stillborn and miscarried children has affected both friends and family and I’m very keen to do something to help fundraise for Sands. You can read more about their work at uk-sands.org. There’s a Rotory-organised walk for 600 around Guernsey while I’m holiday on the island so I’ve signed-up to join in – complete with a ridiculous 4.30am start so I hit the dangerous cliff-top sections in daylight – but will try to jog the flatter, safer sections. If it’s anything like the Jersey coastal walk I did in 2010, it’ll be the repeated ascents and descents which really take the toll on muscles, but I’m looking forward to the experience. I just hope I can still ride my bike at the end, as it’s a cycling holiday I’m on!”
The charity page for this endeavour is www.Justgiving.com/GoCoastal and Paul added: “Having hit my personal target for the relatively tame BUPA race in London, not least thanks to Oscar and Shots Media – cheers guys! – I’m pushing for some extra support for this more demanding challenge. I appreciate people have their own reasons for giving to specific charities, so anything to either would be wonderful, but if folks can be swayed towards Sands it would be appreciated as at the time of writing, I’ve yet to get a single sponsor.”
ETO wishes Paul every success in his efforts, but stress he’d better be fully healed in time for the ETO Show…
