Alan tragically died whilst running the Wilmslow Half Marathon on 3 April 2016 (his 31st birthday).
On 5 April 2016 Alan’s family and partner decided to set up a JustGiving charity page as a memorial for Alan. We initially set the fundraising target as £1000 but soon increased it to £2000. Donations started flooding in, initially from fellow runners from the Wilmslow Half Marathon. The donations were extremely generous and the running community gave us great support.
Thereafter, Alan’s friends, work colleagues and wider family donated to the fund. Also, the Manchester legal and business communities showed their support. In addition, many of our friends and colleagues donated and left heartfelt messages. The love and praise shown towards Alan was an amazing tribute to him.
By the end of day one the JustGiving page had raised just over £2500. By the end of day two an additional £4600 had been raised.
The donations continued to increase and at Alan’s funeral we decided that donations would be made to Alan’s JustGiving page in lieu of flowers.
The JustGiving page remained open until 3 August 2016. During these four months there were several charity events (and amazing acts of kindness) that took place which boosted the overall fundraising total. Some of the key events were:-
- The runner who came 5th place in the Wilmslow Half Marathon donated his prize money in Alan’s memory.
- Alan’s partner, Nicky, and her sister, Kate Harris, together with their friends (Chris and Sarah Hammond, Greg Whittaker, Gemma Mayers and Ana Assis Gomes) completed the CRY London Bridges Walk on 26 June 2016.
- On 16 April 16 one of Alan and Nicky’s friends, Chris Hammond, attended the Bramhall Park run and asked for donations from runners and spectators. He raised £135.
- On 8 May 2016 Nicky’s cousin, George Roweberry and his wife Sarah ran the Hackney Half Marathon in memory of Alan and raised at least £200.
- Alan’s sister, Julia, for her wedding on 28 May 2016 donated a sum in lieu of wedding favours.
- Alan’s family donated the money they had given Alan for his birthday.
- There were extremely generous donations made by Wilmslow Half Marathon and Maccelsfield Harriers.
On closing, the JustGiving page totalled £15,516. This was raised by 617 donations. The figure was 775% of our £2000 target. The total amount we donated to CRY was £15,007.18. This has been donated to support CRY’s research programme.
We are extremely grateful to every person who donated and showed us so much support.
