The Association is delighted to have 7 people running in the 2009 London Marathon. Five runners will take our Golden Bond places and the other two have secured ballot places and will run for the Gauchers Association.

Good luck to runners Sarah, Liz, Kate, Nathan, Alistair, Dan and Jake who over the next few months will be training hard up and down the country, each tell their story below. Please support them as much as you can. Last year the Association raised over £9000 through the generous support of our members, their friends and family.
  The Association has now established a marathon fundraising page at www.justgiving.com to make it easy to support our runners. To make a donation all you have to do is go to the Just Giving website and type in the ‘Gauchers Association’. Once you get to our site you will be guided through the process.

“My name is Dan Britten I am from Stamford Lincolnshire. This year’s London Marathon will be my second London Marathon and hopefully my second Marathon of April 2009. I am hoping to complete the London and Paris marathons in preparation for a future fundraising event of the Marathon des Sables in 2010. I enjoy personal physical challenges and this summer I completed Lands End to John O’Groats on my bike and I now look forward to returning to my running training. I am running for the Gauchers Association as my colleague’s son, Henry Jameson has Gaucher disease and I wanted to support him and the association’s future development. I am delighted to help Gaucher and look forward to raising awareness of the charity and plenty of money for the cause”.

“I am Jake and I believe more than anything that the London Marathon is massive challenge and an amazing occasion, for everyone that is involved. I ran the Great North Run a couple of years ago and it was an incredible experience, with a lovely atmosphere, one that gave me a real buzz and a desire to complete the full marathon distance. Having watched my brother  partake in the London Marathon a couple of years ago it has since been a day that I have wanted to experience, for both my own sense of achievement, as well as for the thousands of people that benefit from the money raised. Gaucher Disease is not that well known, unless you have a friend or family member that suffers from it. By helping to raise money for the Gauchers Association I aim to help raise this awareness and support for people that suffer from it and the families that are affected as a result, so that they have every possibility of dealing with the symptoms that it brings”.

“My sister, Elizabeth Begley, a GP in London and myself, Sarah Stansfield, an accountant in Worcester, both juggle full time jobs with looking after husbands and largely grown up children. We have been running for about 6 years and did the London Marathon in 2005 fairly slowly. We hope to be a bit faster this time although probably not  competing with Paula Radcliffe. We heard about the Gauchers Association through my brother-in-law, David Begley, who gave a presentation at the recent neuronopathic Gaucher disease family conference in Northampton, and therefore we are really pleased to be able to support the brilliant work the charity is doing for sufferers from this disease. I have been lucky enough to be given one of Association’s golden bond places and my sister, who got a place through the marathon ballot, has chosen to run for Gaucher as well. Hopefully we will get round in a personal best time but more importantly we want to raise money and awareness for Gauchers Association”.

“I am Kate and I will be running the London Marathon with my two brothers, Alistair and Nathan. Alistair is a Lecturer in Engineering, Nathan has a computer sales business and I run my own shop selling gifts and furniture. We live near Preston in Lancashire. Nathan and I have acquired our places in the Marathon through the Gauchers Association and Alistair has gained his through the ballot. Alistair’s son, Sam, who is 8 years old, was diagnosed with Gaucher Disease when he was 3. Sam will be cheering us on in London along with his little brother Oscar who, thankfully, has not inherited the condition. We are novice runners and this will be our first Marathon, so we have a lot of training to do!
We are looking forward to the challenge and to fundraising for the Association”.