Relay racers raise £7k for Trowbridge family coping with breast cancer (From This Is Wiltshire)

Relay racers raise £7k for Trowbridge family coping with breast cancer

12:40pm Tuesday 9th February 2010

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Friends of a Trowbridge family coping with breast cancer have helped to raise £7,000 through a 100-mile running and cycling relay from London to Wiltshire on Sunday.

The first of the relay racers left Richmond in London at 7.30am and the final participants arrived at the home of Michael and Helen Adams, in Staverton, about 5pm.

Mother-of-two Mrs Adams, 31, was diagnosed with breast cancer in August, while pregnant with her second child, Marley, who was born in December.

The idea for the relay was the brainchild of Russell Anderson-Williams, 30, who works in IT and lives in Bristol, and has been best friends with Mr Adams from since his early 20s.

Mr Anderson-Williams and 12 of Mr Adams’ other closest friends offered to help the couple through taking part in the 100-mile relay.

About £5,000 raised will be given to the family, which includes children, Olivia, 18 months, and Marley, two months, so Mr Adams can have time off work to care for his wife, while she undergoes future cancer treatment. The remaining £2,000 will be given to Cancer Research UK.

Mr Anderson-Williams said: “It all went really well. We managed to do it all in daylight hours.

“I was amazed because I didn’t think we would get it finished that quickly.

“A few of the people ended up cycling rather than running because they had suffered injuries in football and things like that, and I actually ended up cycling two legs of the stretch, one was about 20 miles and the other 25 miles, because one of the cyclists had badly injured himself.”

Mr Anderson-Williams said he cycled between Windsor and Reading and then from Devizes to Trowbridge for the relay, which mostly followed the A4 route.

He said: “I am pretty exhausted today I must admit, but it was lovely yesterday because when we got to Mike and Helen’s their parents had laid on all this food.

“One of the cyclists Marcus Lynes, who is also from Bristol, actually ended up riding the whole route for his sponsorship money. Things had started getting competitive between all of us.”

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