Sarah-jane runs 54 miles in a day

Three Counties Running Club member Sarah-jane Macdonald (SJ) ran all 54 miles of the Virtual London to Brighton challenge on Saturday.

As the real event was cancelled, the virtual event gave runners a month to achieve it... but Sarah-jane decided to give herself 24 hours to complete the challenge.

She decided to do this to draw attention to Batten Disease, the work of the charity BDFA (Batten Disease Family Association) and the impact on the lives of the amazing Dodkin family.

Sarah-jane is friends with Sarah and Ben and their three little boys Finley (9), Arthur (7), and Harrison (4). She works with Sarah at Meadowgate Academy in Wisbech.

The disease is extremely rare, with the strand CLN3 affecting only 30 children in the UK. Both Finlay and Harrison are affected by this life limiting and degenerative neurological disease which will not only take their sight, their memory and their physical abilities, but will ultimately take them from their parents, and their beloved brother Arthur, and far too soon.

The work the BDFA does for affected families is vital and is the only support available to them. Pedal4memories, devised by Sarah & Ben, is the fundraising drive currently working to raise money to make incredible memories for the Dodkins to treasure by fulfilling the boys’ wish lists, while supporting other families devastated by this cruel disease through funding the work done by family support workers at the charity.

Sarah-jane started the challenge at 6am and finished the 54 miles just after midnight. On every leg she had fantastic support from club members who either ran with her (always in small groups and 2m apart), junior runners Josh, Jake, Rowan, Imogen and Maisie who ran bits with her, cycle support, cheer squad and even a water station at 19 miles which was needed as the temperature rose.

Supporters were out all through the day in Leverington, Walpole, Wisbech and Elm and even at 10pm club members had lined the high street of Elm to cheer her on at 48 miles.

She said: “This is such a fantastic cause for a wonderful family and hopefully this little thing can help to raise awareness and help fund the research that is drastically needed to find out more about this very cruel disease.

"I would also like say a massive thank you to everyone who came out and supported me by either their messages of support, shouting at me as I went by or donating to the charity. I really appreciate your support.

"Thank you to the wonderful staff at Meadowgate Academy, my family and friends and most of all Team Dodkin who were also out on route, even at 10.30pm. My wonderful friends Sarah Johnson and Sarah Clark who fished out their head torches to run the final nine miles in the night to get me to the end and they definitely saw me at my worst. Thank you all."

If people would still like to donate, please visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/pedal4memories

All members were involved in the week 12 Lockdown Challenge which was something that everyone could do regardless of their pace and the distance they could cover.

With A equalling one and Z 26, the Alphabet Challenge saw members spelling out their name and writing down the numbers that correspond. It could be first name, surname or full name. For instance, Sarah was 19-1-18-1-8 (total 47).

Once members knew their numbers they could decide if these were going to be miles, kilometres or minutes running.

Members could now run the figures as individual runs over the week or the total in one go.

Loads of members participated and could adapt the run depending on how they felt and the heat. Some members pushed themselves to run the minutes continuously which to some was well out of their comfort zone.

Well done everyone who took part and next week the club have teamed up with March AC to take part in the Virtual Green Wheel Relay.