A man from Suffolk is taking on the London Marathon this weekend in memory of his Dad
Stuart Durham from Stowemarket will be raising money for St Elizabeth
Last updated 25th Apr 2025
A man from Suffolk will be taking on over 26 miles in the London Marathon this weekend in memory of his Dad.
Stuart Durham from Stowemarket will be raising money for St Elizabeth Hospice, which helped his family when his Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
"The Hospice is a wonderful place that I hope no one ever needs"
He told us why he chose to raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice.
"It's a place that's very close to me. My dad passed away in 2018. He was in there for about a week. He'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour in April, and then it rapidly went downhill and he passed away in October. The Hospice were brilliant.
Stuart told us that the diagnosis came following a seizure after coming home from work.
We asked him if running for a charity will will help to motivate him as he makes his way along each mile.
He said: " I'll just really try to remember why I'm raising this money, the Hospice desperately need it, the amount of help and sort of support it will bring them is incredible.
"I've said for years that the Hospice is a wonderful place that I hope no one ever needs, but it's there if you need it.
"They were fantastic with us and my family and my mum the whole time my dad was in there and we've got quite a large family and some days there was more than ten of us there and they didn't mind at all.
"So anything anyone can do for them is just brilliant."
We asked what his favourite memory of his dad is.
"Giving him the opportunity to be a granddad was amazing. My daughter is the oldest grandchild.
"So she was the first one, and she's been on a Princess pedestal ever since, and now there are six of them. So my mum's got her hands full. But the love he gave all the grandkids was just brilliant. So I think all of those years."
"The only thing you have to worry about is left or right foot"
Stuart told us that after his father's illness, he took up running, and he found it incredibly beneficial to his mental health.
"I took some time off work and that was actually when I started running was just a bit of me time to to get away from things and have a bit of headspace for myself and I've kind of been doing it ever since.
"I love running on my own. I love just putting some headphones on, grabbing a water bottle and just going. It might be 20 minutes. It could be an hour and a half. It just depends on of how I'm feeling. But it definitely for me, just allows time to process whatever I've got going on.
"The only thing you have to worry about is left or right foot, and that's one of the things that we first ever do when we're born, isn't it? So that should be fairly easy to remember.
"It's just that space where you don't have to worry about anything else. You can just think about what you've got going on in your mind and process and things and then carry on with the rest of the day"
Taking on the 26.2 miles
Looking ahead to Sunday, Stuart said he felt confident about making it around the course.
"They always say if you can run 5K, you can run 10 K. If you can run 10 K, you can run 15. If you can run 15, you can run 20. If you can run half -marathon you can run a marathon. We'll find out on Sunday.
"The thousands of people there sort of cheering you along, I think, is what's probably going to push me and most people over the line."
He told us he wants to take time to absorb everything whilst running.
"I want to sort of make sure that I check myself every couple of miles to be like, _have I had a proper look around_because, when I was there watching last year, there were children with little signs, like a Mario Power up button and I don't want to miss any of that."