Happy bank holiday weekend, readers, and what unusually sunny weather we are having!
While warmer climes are perfect for lounging around at a barbeque, they are less helpful for those taking part in charity fitness challenges. Read on for tales from last weekend’s London Marathon.
But first, congratulations to the humble house sparrow for winning RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch last month, and commiserations to the second-placed blue tit. And a quick shout out to retired millionaire footballer David Beckham for asking for donations to Unicef for his 50th birthday instead of, say, a Nintendo Switch 2. Meanwhile, Mencap scotched rumours last month that golf champion Rory McIlroy had donated around £3.5m of his recent winnings to the charity.
Fridge and ‘ballbag’ join marathon runners
Sunday’s London Marathon set fundraising records with over £75m raised for charities so far.
But missing out on a world record was Joss Mowforth, a Scots army major who attempted to run the fastest marathon ever while carrying a 25kg fridge for armed forces charity SSAFA.
While he was unsuccessful in his attempt, the “London Fridge” was in high spirits after finishing in just over five hours: “I definitely underestimated the heat out there, so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to beat the record.
“But seeing all my family at the SSAFA cheer points, as well as getting to do a mid-race interview with JJ Chalmers and BBC Sport, it was well worth it.”
Diary still has flashbacks to the pain of its own marathon attempt over a decade ago but the idea of lugging a white good for the duration doesn’t bear thinking about.
Also among the thousands of runners was the Robin Cancer Trust’s founder Toby Freeman, dressed as a “giant ballbag” to raise awareness of testicular cancer.
Freeman has been putting on his impractical exercise outfit throughout the year with the overall aim of running 500km across the UK and raising £240,000.
As Freeman said: “If dressing as a giant ballbag makes people stop, laugh, and learn how to save their own life – it’s 100% worth it.”
RNLI stolen flag
In case you missed it, last month, a local RNLI lifeboat station received an old flag that had been stolen by teenagers in 1969.
One of the mischievous youths (now a responsible adult) returned the flag to Trearddur Bay station in north Wales, with an apology and a £20 donation.
The note read: “In 1969 me and two friends were camping up the road from you, one night on the way back to the tent we passed your station and flag pole, one of us climbed up the pole and took the flag!! Wrong of us. We were only 17 at the time, but that’s no excuse!! Just found the flag again, forgot all about it, I was having a sort out and there it was. After all these years hope it gets back to you. Very sorry.”
This is all very whimsical but Diary can’t help thinking that the thieves must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law, complete with Line of Duty-style interrogations. Otherwise, what’s deterring other wrong’uns from nicking our treasured flags left, right and centre. The RNLI seems happy with the £20 donation though, so we’ll let it lie.
