
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS go to Anne Gaskarth who has successfully run TWO marathons in TWO weeks raising money for the Anthony Nolan Charity.
What makes this even more remarkable is that Anne, who has been training since late last year, has had physio guidance over the last two months having suffered an injury.
Anne, who works with us at our Gallery contract tells us why this charity means so much to her:
“My affiliation with the bone marrow and stem cell donor registry charity Anthony Nolan goes back over 30 years. In summer 1986 just before our 13th birthday, I lost my twin brother Mark after a very brief fight with ALL (Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia). At the time, Anthony Nolan was the only existing bone marrow donor registry after having been started by the mother of a child in need of a transplant, just a few years before and it was via this charity that I was to be tested as a potential donor for my brother, but with the severity and speed that his illness happened, there was no time for me to potentially save him.
I was unable to go on the register in later years firstly due to my slight weight then I passed the age threshold passed. So with a great need within myself to help others somehow where I couldn’t help Mark, I decided to try and take on a great event.
I tried numerous times over the years to get on Anthony Nolan’s London Marathon team but as the charity has got bigger and more popular (which I’m very happy about as that means more life saving donors), that means their places have been in huge demand so I hadn’t managed to be successful there. I had a brainwave last autumn (it does happen sometimes!) and thought, why not run the Brighton Marathon for Anthony Nolan instead?? It’s still a marathon- all 26.2 looooong miles and much easier to get a place. The charity were fully behind me, but, lo and behold, within the week, called to offer me a place on their London Marathon too!! OMG!!!! So that meant TWO marathons in TWO weeks!! Brighton being on April 14th and London on April 28th. Challenge wholeheartedly accepted! So now I could finally help blood cancer patients. It costs £40 to swab, administer and get one potentially life saving donor put on the Anthony Nolan register. With my Justgiving page www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nolananne and offline donations
I am currently at the £3200+ mark but if dreams were to come true I would love to raise that to £4000 especially as that would be the sum needed to process 100new donors. That would be a dream come true” The marathons became even more meaningful to Anne as just two weeks before the Brighton marathon a cousin of Anne’s called her to say he’d been diagnosed with myeloma, another blood cancer. Having just started chemo and with stem cell treatment ahead probably later this year we pass on our best wishes on this tough road to recovery.