Wolverhampton father and daughter taking on London Marathon for charity

Andrew and Ellie Rogers, from Wombourne, will join thousands of other runners in taking on the London Marathon on Sunday, running 26.2 miles around the capital and raising funds for Compton Care.

The pair have been running and raising funds for the palliative care charity for three years, with the 56-year-old Andrew saying the charity had given his parents Michael and June the best care possible when they were being treated by it.

He said that when the first lockdown happened in 2020, he and Ellie were sat at home with nothing much to do and saw a tweet from Compton Care about a 5k Tough Mudder run which sparked their interest.

"She was a teacher at a primary school and my work had stopped as I'm self employed, so we were sat around and got the tweet and thought that as we were both overweight and unfit, it was a moment where we should step up," he said.

"We signed up the next day as complete non-runners and downloaded an app called Couch to 5K, an app which helped us to go on a nine-week journey to become runners, first around the garden, then off down the railway line near our home in Wombourne.

"We were ready to go when, unfortunately, the run was cancelled, but we did our own version in the back garden and raised more than £2,000.

"Both of my parents died of cancer at Compton, my dad in 2007 and my mum in 2009, but I just remember how good the care was and how well my parents were look after, so I wanted to do as much as I could to help Compton."

Andrew said he and Ellie had also run the 2021 London Marathon and a virtual marathon in 2022 for Compton and he had also completed a challenge to cover 13 million steps over the calendar year, raising more than £5,000 for Compton Care.

He said he and his 28 year-old-daughter had completed 16 weeks of training to prepare for the marathon, including no alcohol and a vegan diet, and said it had all been worth it for the charity.

"The driver for all of this is Compton Care and my mum and dad, and that's the only reason we're doing it, to put money back in the pot and help the service to keep providing its services for people to use.

"It's very emotional to be doing it with Ellie and in London as you get all the people cheering you on and the marathon has given me so many great memories and moments.

"You do the hard work, then you get the medal at the end of running five-and-a-half hours, so it's all very emotional and I'm looking forward to it."

To find out more and to sponsor Andrew and Ellie, go to justgiving.com/fundraising/andrew-rogers46