Teesside runner doing the Great North Run for MND Foundation

Chris Holloway from Yarm is one of those doing it for the first time

Author: Karen LiuPublished 13th Sep 2026

It's the Great North Run today which will see people from Teesside taking on the world's biggest half marathon.

One of those is first timer Chris Holloway from Yarm. He's doing it for the Dean Fox MND Foundation based in Middlesbrough.

It was set up in honour of his friend Dean who died in 2024 from Motor Neurone Disease.

Chris said: "Dean meant quite a lot to me and we played golf together, we went on holiday together, so he was a big part of my life and having had to witness what he went through with MND was really tough but part of his legacy was obviously creating the foundation.

"The most important thing is obviously to help the foundation raise the funds that they need to be able to continually help the people in the MND community who are struggling with this awful disease. There's no cure and it's not something that people really when they're diagnosed understand.

"There's been times when I've struggled. You can go out on some days and it's great, some days it's like a bit 'meh' and other days I've hated it. During the tough times I just thought about him and what he went through and thought about people who were living with this and that's helped me carry on."

You can support Chris here.

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