28 February 2014

Update: The final amount of money raised by Rona Stewart after running the Inverness Half Marathon for The Beatson Cancer Charity was a fantastic total of £3,061.00.

Described by Rona as "an amazing day" she managed to run her first half marathon in 1 hour 49 minutes and 4 seconds.  

For those who pledged extra if Rona achieved a time under 1 hour 50 minutes, there were a few wallets feeling lighter after the run!

To raise over £3,000 is a fantastic achievement. "I am absolutely delighted and overwhelmed with the support and money we have raised. I really do appreciate it."

Pictured right is Rona’s ‘Beatson Dream Team’ consisting of six family and friends (Rona is second from the left). Happy faces after just completing the half marathon. (Click to view larger)

Pictured left, the team show off their Beatson t-shirts. (Click to view larger).

Big congratulations to all six runners, from everyone at bto.

28th February 2014 News

With one week and two days left to go until bto secretary Rona Stewart runs her first half marathon in Inverness in aid of The Beatson Cancer Charity, I caught up with her to find out how her training is going.

Rona is the picture of health – young, bright eyed and fresh faced. She’s been running for 3 years now and exudes enthusiasm and positivity. Her current training schedule would not suit the faint hearted, with a ‘one day on / one day off’ training routine, combining 10K runs, hill sprints, running 5K and then taking part in a spin class, and all of these before starting her day’s work at bto ! Then at the weekend, when most people crave for a long lie in, Rona fits in a long run.

Rona’s ‘Beatson Dream Team’ consists of six family and friends, all committed to running the 13.1 miles of the Inverness Half Marathon route on Sunday 9th March. When asked if she had any concerns about the day, she replied that she was trying not to think too much about the course, a (thankfully) mostly flat route following the banks of the River Ness and finishing at Queen's Park Stadium.

Why The Beatson Cancer Charity?

Rona had already decided to do the Inverness Half Marathon and was in full swing with training when one of her runs took her past the Beatson building and she got the idea of using her marathon efforts to raise money for them.

She draws inspiration from her boyfriend David, who fought testicular cancer 4 years ago and who will be running with her on the day. During his illness David continued to keep as fit as he could. He ran races shortly after his operation and subsequent treatment at the Beatson with a positive attitude and great determination, and continued to raise funds for them. After his illness David also did volunteer work at the Beatson, helping groups of patients improve their diet and encouraging them to fit in regular exercise into their recovery programme. As someone with personal experience of what others were going through at the Beatson, his help was well received by those he worked with. Rona says, “His efforts and dedication to raising awareness about testicular cancer and funds for ‘The Beatson Cancer Charity’ has been amazing over the past few years because he knows what valuable work it does.”

Get involved

Overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity so far, Rona puts the success of her fund raising to date down to an active presence on Facebook and the fact that the charity is also bto’s chosen charity this year, so it has been easier to get family, friends and work colleagues interested and on board with her fund raising.

There’s still time to get involved and help Rona achieve an awesome fund raising total. If you haven’t already checked out Rona’s Just Giving page, please do and donate what you can to this great cause.

There’s also a bit of sportsmanship going on in Rona’s department with her boss Garry Ferguson pledging £50 if she achieves a time under 1 hour 55 minutes, and a further £50 if she achieves under 1 hour 50 minutes.....No pressure then Rona !!! If you’d like to get involved and incentivise Rona further with a time pledge, just get in touch with her via her email or make a donation on her Just Giving page.