Marathon relay runners raise £10,000 for Cobalt Appeal (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Marathon relay runners raise £10,000 for Cobalt Appeal

MARATHON relay runners raised more than £10,000 for the Cobalt Appeal Fund in Cirencester Park on the Sunday before last.

A total of 24 teams of ten from local businesses took part in this Crack Cancer event, running the 26 miles around the park in beautiful sunshine with friends and family cheering them all the way.

First place went to Abbey Business Equipment with a winning time of two hours 17 minutes and 37 seconds - just inside Paula Radcliffe's winning time in the London Marathon of 2-17.42!

The fastest female was young England star Emily Pigeon, from Gloucester, with a lap time of 6min 20sec while Peter Kelly was the fastest male with 5.37.

The top five teams in the marathon are as follows: Abbey Business Equipment (2-17.37), Nationwide Building Society A-team (2-20.28), Nationwide Building Society B-team (2-53.16), TIN Direct (3-3.9) and Barclays Bank (3-4.14).

Sadly, though, race co-ordinator Allan Roseberry has decided to finally hand over the baton after 17 years of organising these event.

Charity treasurer Peter Hornby said: "Not only has Allan been responsible for organising this event, but in the past he has arranged the Cobalt half-marathon, which used to take place at the Cheltenham racecourse.

"He has worked tirelessly for many years and our warmest thanks go to him."

The Cobalt Appeal Fund - Crack Cancer Campaign - has played a major part with the NHS in establishing the Cheltenham Oncology Centre.

It also helped set up the Gloucestershire Breast Screening Service, providing both equipment and accommodation from which the service operates.

For more information about the charity, please call them on 01242 535900.

All those interested in entering a team for next year's Cobalt Marathon Challenge should e-mail their full details to fundraising@cobaltapppeal.com