Great Bristol Run: charity fundraisers ready to take on course

A group of 40 people are taking part in the Great Bristol Run in memory of a young man who took his own life after struggling with mental health issues.

Friends and family of Harry Greenman, 23, are among thousands of runners preparing for the event on Sunday.

His father Steve is running to raise money for mental health charity Mind.

The group from Radstock are also fundraising for Dementia UK after runner Helen Bridges' mum Hilda was diagnosed with the condition.

"About a year ago, my friend Kev called to say he was thinking about running the half-marathon," said Mr Greenman.

"He said he wanted to do it for Mind in honour of Harry, but his wife's mum, Hilda Bridges, suffers from dementia, as does my own mum, so he decided to make it a double whammy and raise funds for both Mind and Dementia UK."

The group has raised more than £5,700 and it will be the first running event Mr Greenman has taken on.

"I'm a total non-runner and never done anything like this before," he said.

Another large group running will be headed by Chris Eades, whose three-year-old son Bodhi was diagnosed with leukaemia in January.

Mr Eades will be joined by 45 friends and family as they raise money for Bristol Children's Hospital charity, the Grand Appeal.

Bodhi was diagnosed three days before his third birthday and spent six months in hospital, but will be running a mile with his mum and sister, while his dad takes on the 10k.

"The Grand Appeal massively supported us as a family. It's life changing. There's nothing you can compare it to," said Mr Eades.

"When you go through something like this your friends and family want to help but they feel a bit helpless, so this is one of those moments where they felt like they could do something special for Bodhi and the people who helped us."

Founder of Portishead mental health charity the 401 Foundation, Ben Smith, once ran 401 marathons in as many days, and will be taking on the half-marathon course.

He said the charity's ability to provide funding had been badly hit by Covid-19, but money raised from the Great Bristol Run would enable them to start handing out grants again from October.

"We rely on the amazing donors and fundraisers that we have so to have lost that over the past few years has had a huge effect on our charity to the point where we had to shut down our funding programmes.

"But I'm happy to say we'll be handing out funding again which is amazing and thanks to the runners taking part," he added.

Another of Sunday's fundraisers is Adam Hamilton from Twyning, near Tewkesbury, who will be running while wearing a 45kg backpack to support the Royal Marines Charity.

He has been training for nine months and says the regime has been "tough".

"A close friend is in the Royal Marines and I've lost a couple of friends in action in Afghanistan so it's a charity that's quite close to me," added Mr Hamilton.

The Great Bristol Run includes both a 10k race and a half marathon, with runners covering a course going through the city centre and around the city's harbourside.

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