My life changed forever on August 1st, 2022, when I received a call from one of the solar farm workers at Angle Farm in Soham. They had found my dad with a gunshot wound to his chest.

To keep this short, i rang my sister and we moved heaven and earth to get there—along with half of Cambridgeshire’s armed police and ambulance crews—while he was still alive. Minutes later, the amazing Magpas helicopter landed just metres away, and within minutes, they had my dad on an operating table in the middle of a cornfield, fighting to save his life.

Unfortunately, that day wasn’t his lucky day, and he sadly passed away.

I’ve wanted to do the London Marathon on his behalf for a while. He was always taking the mickey out of my running, saying I was too “over the hill” to be doing these stupid races. We watched the London Marathon from a helicopter experience over London back in 2014. He was also a keen supporter of Magpas, regularly playing their monthly lotto.

I won’t go into the ifs and buts of how he ended up in a cornfield on a Monday morning, but more men need to talk about how they are really feeling.

This is my own place, so I don’t have a fundraising limit—give as much or as little as you like. Just know it’s going to an amazing bunch of people who are true heroes. And if you knew my dad, this is the only thing I’ll ever do in his memory, so let’s make it count.

Thanks,

James