Two marathons, two continents, one day – October 2009

On 18 October 2009 husband-and-wife team, Tim Davies and Helen Davies-Kanakis, ran marathons on opposite sides of the globe. With Tim’s race in Amsterdam and Helen’s in San Francisco, both were looking for personal records and once again raising money for the Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust. 

In the run-up to the event Tim and Helen appealed to their friends and family: “Please help us raise money for this worthy cause and in memory and honour of our great friend Jeremy Willson, who sadly died in March 2006 of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). He inspired and encouraged many, including both of us . . .

. . . with his passion and belief in pushing your own limits to achieve the unachievable. We can therefore think of no better way to pay tribute to Jeremy than to support this great cause and ask you to sponsor us to run a silly distance.”
Helen said on completing both their events “I could hear [Jeremy’s] voice egging me on while I ran up the hill at mile 9 in San Francisco - I know he would have appreciated the marathon's tag line "Run Like a Girl" too! . . . I had a great run . . . with 4 hours 1 minute, up and down the hills - with fabulous weather, and really couldn't have asked for better conditions. Tim ran a race of 3 hours 42 minutes in Amsterdam.” Tim and Helen raised £667 between them to help the JWCT continue its work.