Marathon man honours his girlfriend’s life
A runner has honoured his late girlfriend after completing a marathon fundraising challenge.
Lee Bailey ran 26.2 miles around his home town of Stafford to help raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity close to his heart after they helped his girlfriend Naomi Castle.
Naomi lost her battle with Hodgkins Lymphoma in September 2019, aged 31.
Lee, 41, said: “I wanted to do a challenge where I was going to raise as many as I could for Naomi in memory of her and to help MacMillan.
“Additionally, it also needed to be a challenge where people would feel they wanted to donate, as well as something I’d never done before to push myself.”
Lee was originally signed up to do the Manchester Marathon, but moved it to the streets of Stafford after the marathon was first moved to October due to the coronavirus pandemic and then it was cancelled.
He said he had done a few half marathons in the past, but the run on Sunday was his first-ever attempt at covering a full 26.2-mile marathon distance.
Lee, who received support from friends and family along the way, said: “Everyone who came out was really supportive and it was great to see so many of my friends and family out there cheering me on as well.
“I know Naomi would have been proud as well as she’d been so chuffed that I was going to do the Manchester marathon, telling everyone on social media about it.”
The final total raised by Lee was £4,000 and he said he would look to do more challenges in the future.
He said: “I’ll definitely re-enter the Manchester marathon next year, which is in April. It gives me enough time to rest from this run and then get back to training.
“Doing this marathon was great and after seeing how good it could be around Stafford with a few people, I think it’ll be even better in front of thousands of people in Manchester.”
