North Hamphire women begin 860 mile charity run
The friends are raising money for a regional hospice group by running for 17 days in a row
Two women from north Hampshire have started a 17 day charity run which will see them complete the distance of two marathons each day.
The total distance of the gruelling challenge is 860 miles - the equivalent of Lands End to John O'Groats - and so far Debbie Costen from Basingstoke, and Sarah Cotton from Hannington have raised nearly £7000.
Originally they planned to run between Land's End and John O'Groats, but the event had to be called off due to lockdown restrictions. Instead the women decided not to put their 30-hour a week training to waste and run a local route.
Throughout the challenge they’ll be setting off at 5am through Newbury, Kintbury, Hungerford, Bedwyn and Wooton Rivers until the reach their 26 mile half way point, where they’ll turn around, run all the way back and do it all again the next day!
Debbie works in 2 local schools, Cliddesden Primary School and Hatch Warren Junior School, both in Basingstoke. Each class collectively are looking to see how long it takes them to achieve the 860 miles walking/running by doing the golden mile during school time and to record their walk/run/jog/cycle out of school with their families. The schools are going to link with Debbie and Sarah during their challenge so that the children can leave messages of support and encouragement.
The pair are raising funds for Naomi House & Jacksplace hospices and you can support them by making a donation here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cotton-costen-jogle
Naomi House & Jacksplace hospices provide respite, end of life care and bereavement support to children and young adults with life threatening and life limiting conditions from across the southern seven counties. The charity needs to raise £9.2 million annually to provide a complete service to support local life limited and life threatened children, young adults and their families on good days, difficult days and last days.