This year, our wonderful city is adding the Birmingham International Marathon to the Great Birmingham Run (half-marathon) in its running calendar. Having secured charity places, we’ve put together a team of fab supporters including Daniel, and this is his story…
My name is Daniel Bates, I am a personal trainer and a keen runner. My new year’s resolution plans have finally been coming to fruition. This October I am participating in my biggest challenge to date – the Birmingham International Marathon, as part of the Hospice’s team. Charity work has become an inspiring chapter very much within my life as I realise the importance and how much it means to people and to myself.
Running has been an easy activity I’ve picked up and I love every minute of it. My very first charity run was in 2009 for Sports Relief, I ran 6 miles in 45 minutes and ran past the Aston Villa football legend, Dion Dublin!
Since then, in the last 12 months especially, I have taken running more seriously, with the enjoyment of running for a charity really enhancing my desire, whilst promoting a healthy addiction to participate more. A few charities I have run for are Diabetes UK, British Heart Foundation and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
I chose to run for Birmingham St. Mary’s Hospice on behalf of my best friend Martyn and for his family, in memory of his dad Len. My motivation for running for Martyn and his family was that I wanted to carry on supporting the good work the Hospice has been doing and to honour his dad the best way I could.
As a personal trainer, I want to inspire other people to take up these sorts of challenges and for me to share my experiences, training tips and daily motivation techniques with them, including what helps me keep focused throughout my preparation.
Birmingham St Mary’s provides vital care to patients and families living with terminal illness across Birmingham and Sandwell, caring for more than 1,000 families each year.
With the Hospice relying on public donations and costing over £8 million each year, I’m more than happy to support them and run on their behalf in this year’s Birmingham International Marathon. Here is the link to my JustGiving page, please share/donate whatever you can and help Birmingham St Mary’s to continue to provide the fantastic support they do… https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/daniel-batesbm17
Daniel
X
Thank you for sharing your story with us Daniel and we can’t wait to cheer you on in October for the Birmingham International Marathon!
All of our International Marathon places have been filled but if you’ve been inspired by Daniel and would like to run for our Hospice, click here to secure one of our remaining places for the Great Birmingham Run, which is a half-marathon!
