News

Sharks season ticket holder Alex Green with Ben Cohen

Sharks fan to run the marathon for charity

Wednesday, March 10th 2010

“My name is Alex Green and on 25th April I will be running the London Marathon”. I have to keep repeating this sentence back to myself to believe it’s true!

Every year, previous to this one, I have watched the London Marathon on Television questioning why someone would want to put themselves through such a gruelling ordeal. Now I think I may be close to the answer... to achieve a lifelong ambition and help raise money for a deserving charity in the process.

In my case my chosen charity is the Mental Health Foundation who helps people survive, recover from and also prevent mental health problems. This is a charity close to my heart because as well as supporting illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia they also support people with Dementia, which is unfortunately a disease that my Grandpa suffers from. I have seen firsthand what an upsetting effect this illness can have on the person’s life in question and the people who care for them.

As you can imagine the marathon training is pretty intense, especially to someone like me who until 9 months ago used to be content with watching sport rather than taking part! I have totally altered my life and diet and joined a running club to ensure I give this run my best shot. I have lost over 3 and a half stone in the process and even compete in local races on the weekends. And so far to raise funds I have carried out a cake sale (yummy!) at work and have done a ‘bag-pack’ at Sainsbury’s with the help of family and friends.

I have been a rugby fan all my life watching my dad play in the front row and being ushered from the club house with some pop and bag of crisps whilst ‘the team’ bond together over some songs about the opposition (and that was only last week LOL). In particular I have been a Sale Sharks fan for over 5 years now, I’m also a season ticket holder and have been on the Sale Sharks Supporters Club committee for the last 2 years.

I have witnessed how many charities the club has helped support and I am very grateful for their support with raising money for Mental Health Foundation. If you would like to show your support too then any donations are gratefully received at www.justgiving.com/alexandragreen.