By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Centre swim teacher Nicki Bennett swapped the pool for solid ground when she recently took on the London Marathon for charity.
After losing a friend to leukemia last year, Ms Bennett chose to raise money for the Anthony Nolan Foundation, which matches people with blood cancer to stem cell transplants.
Ms Bennett said her friend had a bone marrow transplant but had died from complications.
“I thought I would choose a charity that matches people with blood cancer with the stem cell registry and does stem cell research, a lot of people have been coming up saying they’ve been affected by blood cancer,” she said.
“I’ve got another friend whose son is going through treatment for blood cancer at the moment, he’s only 16 and my sister-in-law has had it as well, so it was a charity close to my heart.”
The London Marathon was held on Sunday 23 April, and takes participants past a number of landmarks, running alongside the River Thames, past the Tower of London, near St Paul’s Cathedral and finishing up near Buckingham Palace.
Ms Bennett said in order to apply for a charity place in the race, she had to raise a minimum of 200 British pounds (equal to $3744).
“We did a few events to fundraise, we had a sausage sizzle at the Yarra Centre and I did a mini-triathlon with some friends at the Yarra Centre as well, which was a big success and my friends have been very generous,” she said.
“At the moment I’m currently sitting at 3600 pounds, which is about $6800. That’s the bit I’m most proud of, raising the money for charity, knowing that it’s going to have such a good outcome for so many people.”
A regular runner already, after finding out she was accepted in November, Ms Bennett followed a 16-week program to make sure she was ready for the event.
Ms Bennett said she wasn’t after a very quick time, but it was the most amazing experience.
“I just wanted to feel strong and keep a slow, steady pace, which I did, and felt good from start to finish. I flew over with my husband because he’s from England and his brother and sister came down from Yorkshire, so they were walking around watching me too,” she said.
“It was just amazing to see there was no bit of it where there wasn’t crowd support, I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Anyone interested can still donate to Ms Bennett’s fundraising page at:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nicki-Bennett1.
