In February 2023, a dear friend of ours, Nicholas Leger, took his own life at the age of 32. This was a devastating loss for his family and friends. Nick was a fantastic human. His humour, generosity, charm, creativity, style, sense of adventure, Christmas cards, servant heart and love for others will long be remembered by everyone who knew him. But he suffered in a way few people knew or saw, and kept so much hidden from those who cared about him. This shouldn’t be the case and people shouldn’t be afraid to reach out for help.

PAPYRUS is a charity working on the prevention of young suicide and, sadly, suicide is the biggest killer of people aged 35 and under in the UK. So, in honour of Nick and the pain he went through, we’re aiming to raise money for PAPYRUS in the hope future lives can be saved.

So on Saturday 2nd September 2023, Nick Buttenshaw and Paul Riseley will be undertaking the St Albans Stampede, which is a 12 hour ultra marathon running race. The challenge: to complete as many 4 mile (6.44 km) laps as possible within the 12 hours. This will be done in relay, with one of us completing a lap before the next person takes over, and so on, for 12 hours. Our target is to achieve a combined total of 16 laps / 64 miles / 103 km (so 32 miles / 51.5 km each). If we can do more (the dream would be 20 laps, so 40 miles each), great. If not, we’ll have tried our best and that’s what matters.

We can just imagine Nick’s reaction to us doing this; likely one of surprise at our stupidity (he hated running!), but also his respect and support of us doing it - no doubt he'd be supporting from the sidelines with an IPA in his hand!

So here’s to you Nick. We love you.

Nick & Paul

The Leger-nds: On Your Left! (our team name for the event!)

https://stalbansstriders.com/racing/st-albans-stampede-12hr-enduro