FOUR lifelong friends from Helensburgh have raised thousands for a cancer charity after completing “the biggest achievement of our lives”.
Brian Cameron, Andrew Shortt, Brendan Campbell and Jack Gorman each ran around 48 miles in 48 hours, along Helensburgh seafront, between last Thursday and Saturday, March 4-6, raising more than £6,500 for the Beatson Cancer Charity.
Inspired by family members’ experiences of the disease, the group decided to take on the 4x4x48 challenge, devised by endurance athlete David Goggins, to run four miles every four hours over the course of two days.
After successfully finishing the gruelling feat, and enjoying some well-earned recovery time, Brian told the Advertiser that the money raised made all the effort worthwhile.
“It was probably harder than we thought it was going to be,” he said, “not in terms of the running but just not being able to sleep.
“Because we were so tired we just wanted to go to bed instead of eating, then because you’re not eating you’ve not got as much energy, so in that sense it was difficult.
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“Knowing that we’d raised that much money, and that many people had donated and supported us, it made it a lot easier.
“We can’t even put into words how much the money raised means to us. It’s quite unbelievable. We can’t thank everyone enough.”
Brian previously told the Advertiser of his mum and gran’s cancer diagnoses and treatment at the Beatson’s specialist centre in Glasgow, while his dad recovered from thyroid cancer and Jack’s gran also overcame her own cancer diagnosis.
Andrew’s gran sadly passed away from the illness in 2015, and the quartet of ex Hermitage Academy pupils are delighted to be able to repay some of the help that the charity has provided in recent times.
Brian said: “We know for a fact, because we’ve all been through it and we all know what the Beatson does, that that money will actually make a difference.
“It’ll maybe go to clinical trials, it might help to find a new treatment which could help save a life, so knowing we’ve done that, it’s just unbelievable.
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“My mum and my gran are close with Andrew, Brendan and Jack. They’ve known them since they were toddlers, so it means a lot to them because we’re all so close.
“There were tears when we all crossed the finish line because we put ourselves through the ringer and everyone could see that.
“That’s what got us through at the end of the day, we didn’t want to let them down and we wanted to do it for them. We couldn’t be happier.
“We’ve all said this is probably the biggest achievement of our lives, not just doing the run but raising that much money.
“It’s something we’ll all look back at, as pals, in who knows how long, and say ‘we actually done that’.
“We’re all still buzzing off it.
“I’m sure we’ll look at doing another challenge - but maybe not running, we’re all sick of running!”
Brian thanked Helensburgh Morrisons for donating a hamper of treats, while Riva in West Clyde Street, the Artist Patisserie in Sinclair Street, Station Bar in East Princes Street and M&T Builders Merchants were also thanked for donating supplies.
To donate to the fund-raiser visit justgiving.com/fundraising/48mile.
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