Gazeley runner Ben Blowes to run 100 miles in 24 hours to raise money for the Liam Fairhurst Foundation

Charity runner Ben Blowes will be tackling a new challenge next month to raise money to provide once-in-a-lifetime holidays for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families.

Ben, from Gazeley, has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities with his long-distance exploits, including £200,000 when he ran a marathon a day for the whole of December 2021.

Now, a year later, starting at Tesco’s Newmarket store, he plans to run 100 miles in 24 hours for the Soham-based Liam Fairhurst Foundation.

The charity is run by the parents of Liam who died, aged 14, in 2009, after a brave battle against cancer, which saw his fund-raising campaign to help other children affected by the disease recognised when he was the winner of a national Child of Courage Award.

Ben will be running in memory of Ollie Duell, a teenager with complex medical needs, who died aged 17 last December.

Ollie and his family were taken to Euro Disney in 2015 thanks to the foundation,

which had also helped about a dozen more families to enjoy an extra-special break together.

Since Ollie died, his family and friends have raised enough money to sponsor six families affected by cancer, disability and life-limiting illness to go on holiday.

It was Ollie’s uncle, David Masters, also a runner, who told Ben about his nephew and Ben made it his aim to raise the cost of holidays for four further families.

“Knowing about someone personally who was supported by LFF before his death, I wanted to do something to help,” said Ben.

“As daunting as this challenge is, it is one that I am relishing and I’m hoping the local running community will come out to support me as they have always done in the past.”

Ollie’s mother Claire said: “The loss of a child is something no parent should face but knowing we can keep Ollie’s memory and legacy alive by helping other families brings us some comfort.

“We are grateful to Ben for what he is doing in Ollie’s name and to the foundation for all the support they have provided for us as a family”

The run will start from Tesco’s Newmarket store at noon on Friday, December 2, and end at the same place 24 hours later.

Each lap of a route around the town has been measured at 4.16 miles and Ben will be stopping at the Tesco ‘base camp’ on the hour at the end of each circuit to make it easy for other runners to join him and for shoppers to boost the collection.

Donations can be made via Ben’s justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/100forOllie

The foundation would like to hear from any businesses which would like to sponsor an hour or more of the run.

They can be contacted on liamfairhurstfoundation@proton.me