Mike Bradley has smashed his fundraising target for running the Virtual London Marathon by 211%, raising over £2,000 for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
Mike was due to take part in the 40th London Marathon in April which was unfortunately cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However not to be deterred and put all his training to waste, Mike took part in the Virtual London Marathon on 4th October.
With no guaranteed place in the 2021 Marathon, Mike did not want to disappoint those that had already sponsored him. The Virtual London Marathon consisted of running 9-laps of a closed circuit until reaching the fabled 26.2 miles of a Marathon.
He completed the Marathon in 4 hours 58 minutes which included several laps socially distancing guiding blind runners. Mike is a trained guide runner, supporting the visually impaired on regular runs as part of his coaching activities with Saffron Striders.
“I have been dealing with blind people since I was 8-years old when my mum lost her sight,” commented Mike Bradley.
“I also did my ski guiding qualification with guide dogs and I now do guide running with visually impaired runners. I am branch organiser for the Saffron Walden Branch of Guide Dogs Fundraising.
“I was hoping to raise £1000 as it would take the branch fundraising over £56,000 which is the whole life-cycle cost of a guide dog.
“I am completely overwhelmed by the donations made to my fundraising efforts. I cannot thank those enough that have donated.”
At the time of writing, Mike has raised £ 2,111. If you do wish to donate to Mike’s efforts, you can do so via his JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mike-saffronstrider
