Two local lads Jack Clarke and Chance Walker are doing a charity walk next week (Friday 7 April) to raise money for the Christie.

The event is a 111-mile walk between Manchester and Sheffield, which will span across three days and is the equivalent distance of four marathons. The walk will be split between Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Sheffield.

It is a cause close to both their hearts, as Christie's took great care of Jack's grandfather back in 2021 when he unfortunately passed away from cancer, and Christie's are looking after Chance's grandfather who is currently suffering from the disease. They have raised over one thousand pounds for the organisation and are hopeful this figure can grow in the coming week.

The pair have been planning the event since last November, and Jack says the two of them have been training since then in preparation for the walk, “We started off with shorter distance walks as we didn’t want to throw ourselves into the deep end”. “We have done a few 20-mile walks and a couple of full marathons, but none back-to-back in consecutive days, which is going to be the difficult part”.

When asked how the idea came about, Jack said, “It all just sort of came together a few months ago”. “Originally we were going for three marathons in three days but we, perhaps foolishly, thought that didn’t sound challenging enough, so we added an extra marathon on top”.

Jack and Chance both outlined their main reasons for support Christie’s in particular, “Not too long ago, my grandad unfortunately passed away to cancer, and Christie’s were heavily involved with looking after him and they did an amazing job”, noted Jack. His best friend, Chance, also gave his reasoning, “My grandad is currently suffering from cancer and the Christie’s have helped him out so much, so me and Jack thought the least we could do is try and raise some money for them”.

Jack also noted that any event the pair were to do, would have to be quite impressive to live up to some of his grandad’s achievements, who ran a half-marathon aged 70, despite being fully blind, “We knew that whatever challenge me and Chance did would need to be pretty spectacular in order to top what my grandad did”.

Jack also highlighted why they chose this type of challenge specifically, “My grandad was obviously very into his running, and I used to go running with him, so it just felt right to do something along the lines of a marathon, or some kind of run”.

The pair were keen to point out that they hope to inspire others to raise money for charity, through what they are doing, “We want to motivate others to raise money too, you never know the difference these sums of money can make to charities, you could save someone’s life, so I’d urge anyone to try and raise as much money as they can”.

The pair were also asked what advice they would give to someone thinking about doing a similar event to them, “You have to be very dedicated, we’ve had to put in so many hours of work”, stated Chance. “You’ve got to surround yourself with supportive people, because if you’ve got people who are willing to support you then you’re halfway there, especially if you’ve got the right mindset”, he added.

As mentioned earlier, Jack and Chance have raised over a thousand pounds for Christie’s through their ‘gofundme’ page, in just a matter of months. If you would like to donate please visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/4-marathons-in-3-days-to-support-the-christie 

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