Last Sunday our two runners, Ana and Katja, both completed the Cambridge Half Marathon. They raised a remarkable combined total of £651.82. Our fundraising officer, Juliet, was there on the day and told us more about how the day went.

Unfortunately, it was a cold and wet day for our runners; however, it was not too windy for them to keep a good pace without being blown away. After some photos were taken at Wesley Methodist Church, we headed over to grab last-minute coffee’s and our runners made their last preparations for the race. The race started on Midsummers Common. The rain began to pick up which was frustrating; however, our runners were not nervous and were ready to take on the challenge.

The atmosphere before the race was fantastic, everyone was ready to brave the 13.1-mile run. Luckily, the rain started to lift. We wished our runners good luck and stood at the start line waiting to cheer them on.

There were 9000 runners taking part in the half marathon this year, and it a great seeing them all run past the start line. Their route took them through the centre of Cambridge, passing the beautiful University buildings. It took them out all the way to Grantchester; Ana commented afterwards on passing cows during her run. The race headed back through the city and finally ended where it began, Midsummers Common, where we were waiting to cheer them on at the end. Ana finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes and Katja finished in just under 3 hours. They were both very pleased as they had beaten their targets times. This was also Ana’s first half marathon.

They both did a fantastic job and raised a staggering amount of funds for the AKU Society. They wore the AKU running vests throughout their run, raising even more awareness for the disease throughout the city of Cambridge.

We want to say a massive thank you to Ana and Katja for raising funds and running the half marathon. The funds raised are vital for our community building, patient support and medical research. We hope they will take part next year, with new goals!

You can still donate to our runners on their JustGiving pages. The link to Ana’s page: https://bit.ly/2TcPYiE and the link to Katja’s page: https://bit.ly/2SP9pyC

If you would like to get involved with similar AKU fundraising events in the future or want to raise money for AKU, then please contact our fundraising officer, Juliet, juliet@akusociety.org to learn more about what we have coming up and how you can raise funds for AKU.

We also have an exciting announcement, our next ‘Stand Up to AKU’ comedy night will be taking place at the Hot Water Comedy club in Liverpool on the 9th of June, keep your eyes peeled for more information about this event, we are all very excited!