Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nomination – Gareth Copley-Jones
Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nomination – Gareth Copley-Jones
A leading sports photographer ran a backyard marathon in North Staffordshire that raised more than £17,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Gareth Copley-Jones, from Clayton, works at some of the world’s leading sports events including taking photos for the England cricket team and has a book out next year chronicling his 20 years of following them around the world.
The 45-year-old is also a running fanatic, so when it came to a challenge to raise money for charity that was the obvious choice.
His plan was to run 100 miles in 24 hours, running a 4.1 mile loop every hour for 24 hours – almost four marathons back-to-back in one day.
Gareth completed his first backyard marathon by himself in Silverdale Country Park two years ago. This time he was joined throughout the day and night by a number of keen runners, friends and members of the community.
The team ran more than 700 miles between them, climbing the equivalent of Ben Nevis twice.
Gareth has been nominated as a Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year in the Your Heroes Awards by Kelly Bloor.
She said: “Nobody would have completed it without Gareth’s support and unwavering belief in them, and during the event he did not stop reminding everyone why they were running, even at 4am at minus two degrees!
“He volunteers his own time to coach fellow running enthusiasts locally and has set up Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior Park Run. He is a local hero to all that know him.”
Gareth said: “I love running and when I thought about undertaking a challenge I wanted it to include running, but I wanted a really big challenge – and completing 100 miles in a day is certainly that!
“I think word got out after the last one two years ago, as I must have been joined by 30 or 40 people at the start, and the spirit of the running community really helped to get me around the park.
“It takes quite a bit of discipline to complete it all with regards to timings and getting nutrition in but we were obviously doing it for a great cause and that really spurred us on.”