Beauty salon owner Bethan is running a marathon every month in 2023 

Bethan Pritchard, 31 from Malton, North Yorkshire is running a marathon every month throughout the course of 2023, to raise funds for two charities close to her heart, Tommy’s and Rydale Special Families.   

After sadly experiencing a missed miscarriage in 2016, Bethan struggled to come to terms with her grief. Depressed and lonely, she turned to reading and one book in particular ‘Jog On’ gave her the confidence to start running.  

“Lockdown happened and I just threw myself into fitness. I did lots of online classes, started eating well and then I just randomly said to my mum, I’m going to go out and run a marathon, said Bethan” 

“My mum couldn’t believe it. I got up, put my trainers on and off I went. I didn’t have a plan, I just started to run. I finished my first marathon in just under 5 hours and realised that I could do more. I could run more marathons and I could raise money to help other people like me.” 

From that moment, Bethan set herself a challenge of completing a marathon every month for 12 months.  

To date, Bethan has completed seven marathons and even ran with JustGiving fundraiser and Former Made in Chelsea star Josh Patterson during his 76 marathons in 76 days challenge.  

Speaking about her fundraising challenge Bethan said: I can’t believe I’m halfway through a challenge that I never thought I’d be able to do. It’s been a complete roller-coaster.  

“Trying to fit all my training in between running two businesses and being maid of honor for my best friend has been pretty overwhelming at times, but seeing the donations coming in and knowing how much that money will help bereaved families and disabled children keeps me going.”  

Bethan chose to create two JustGiving pages for two charities and run six marathons for each of them. The first six for Tommy’s the baby charity which she has a very personal connection to and raised almost £9,000 for.  

The second, is Ryedale Special Families, a local charity in Old Malton which supports families with disabled children to improve their lives. Bethan’s client and friend Charlotte has a three-year-old daughter, Rosa who is currently undergoing lots of tests and will, as she gets older require support from the charity.  

Bethan continued: “Rosa is amazing. She’s had a tough start in life but she is the brightest and most beautiful little girl and she deserves all the help and support she can get.  

“I went to see the charity recently and couldn’t believe the lack of funding the charity gets. They have a huge waiting list of families needing their help and so I want to raise as much money as possible so they’re able to do that.” 

Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager of JustGiving said: “Bethan is so inspiring, Not only has she’s turned her grief into something so positive to raise an incredible amount of money to help other bereaved parents and disabled children, she’s also managed to get lots of other people engaged and active along the way.” 

NOTES TO EDITOR

For further information contact  press@justgiving.com

*All figures quoted include GiftAid and are accurate at the time of releasing this press release.

Figures quoted relate to fundraising activity on JustGiving only. JustGiving is one of many fundraising platforms that people can choose from when fundraising for events such as the London Marathon.

About JustGiving
JustGiving is the world’s most trusted platform for online giving. We help people raise money for the charities and people they care about the most. In 2000, JustGiving.com began with one simple goal – to enable charities to receive donations online from anywhere in the world. Fast forward 22 years and over £5 billion has been raised for good causes in almost every single country in the world.

JustGiving became part of Blackbaud, the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good in 2017.

To note – JustGiving does not charge a fee on donations but instead operates a voluntary contribution model, meaning people donating can choose to leave a ‘tip’ if they wish. The only non-optional fee is a 1.9% + 20p to cover card payment charges.