Morecambe and Lancaster runners take part in London Marathon

Monday, 3 October 2022 10:23

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Kevin Crompton and Catherine Procter completed the London Marathon on Sunday

A Morecambe man who is registered blind and his sight guide, a Morecambe woman paying tribute to her brother, and two brothers who work in a Lancaster gym all took part in the London Marathon.

Kevin Crompton from Morecambe and his sight guide Catherine Procter, also from Morecambe, were among the 42,000 people who tackled the 26.1 mile course from Greenwich to the Mall on Sunday.

They were running to raise money for Galloway's Society for the Blind.

It was Kevin's first marathon and he said that Catherine did "an amazing job guiding me through a congested crowd" as they completed the course in just over six hours.

Catherine said: "Kev and I have been training together for about a year now.

"We met through Parkrun back when I was training for my first marathon and Kev was keen to run some longer distances so I said I'd be happy to help.

"He got a ballot place for London and we've been busy preparing since. He absolutely smashed it yesterday having missed a lot of training having to go away to train with his new guide dog part way through our plan.

"So he did amazingly well to push through a lot of pain yesterday and finish in an amazing 6hrs 3mins.

"He is a truly incredible inspiring wonderful human being and I feel very proud to have helped him round the course yesterday. It's been an absolute pleasure and an honour to run London beside him."

You can find their JustGiving page here.

A Morecambe woman also completed the marathon in memory of her brother, who also took part in the event 30 years ago.

Kelly Wells was running in memory of Carl Newsham, who died from flu complications aged 50, four years ago.

Kelly said that she was "truly, truly humbled" by the support and donations and "today has showed me the best in humanity".

"I would encourage anyone to enter and experience our amazing diverse capital at its best," she said.

Kelly, who went to Lancaster Road Primary and Morecambe High schools, is pictured below.

Carl (pictured below with Kelly) ran the London Marathon when he was 25 so Kelly wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Kelly was running to raise money for the charities Get Kids Going, which gives disabled children the opportunity to participate in sport, and the Rob Burrow MND (Motor Neurone Disease) Association.

Her Justgiving page can be found here.

Brothers Ryan and Daniel Donohue, who both work at Fitness Formation in Lancaster, also completed the marathon.

Ryan thanked everyone for all the messages of support and "tipped his hat" to his brother who finished in 3 hours 57 minutes.

Ryan and Daniel are pictured below with their medals.