He has run over 280 miles in training… setting a personal fundraising target of £5,000 for Cancer Research UK; a charity which is close to the heart of Peters & May. Meet Paul Tate, Group Finance and Commercial Director.
With 12 days left before the world-famous London Marathon; Paul has been hard at work, training day and night. Despite the driving winds, arctic temperatures and persistent snow showers that have battered most of the UK this winter; Paul has persevered, building up the miles ahead of the big day. No-one can argue that Paul isn’t committed to the cause… bleaching his hair bright blonde to hit his £5,000 donations target. On the day, Paul will be sporting a shirt full of the names of those who have fought, continue to fight or have lost their battle to Cancer as added by donators.
As a business, committed to supporting deserving charities such as the Breast Unit Charity and Teen Marine UK; fundraising plays a huge part in the company ethos with our annual Charity Shoot in June. Everyone at Peters & May looks forward to cheering for Paul as he successfully completes the challenging 26.2-mile fundraising run, through the streets of London on the 22nd April 2018.
Peters & May, spent 5 minutes catching up with Paul, to find out a bit about his story, motivation and target when it comes to the London Marathon.
Paul Tate
“Last time I ran the Great South Run, somebody suggested that I should look to raise the bar and find a tougher challenge. So, this year I have signed up and will be running the London Marathon on the 22nd of April 2018.
Again, I have chosen to raise funds for the very deserving charity – Cancer Research UK. Cancer is a cruel and devastating disease which affects everybody, either directly or indirectly. Cancer Research UK use the money raised to fund life-saving research, looking for ways to prevent cancer, diagnose it earlier, develop new treatments and optimise existing treatments to make them more effective, as well as educating and making people aware of this indiscriminate disease.
It certainly feels like I have raised the bar! Having so far completed more than 280 of the planned 350 training miles, 26.2 miles still feels an awful long way! But I am up for the challenge, and every mile that I run on these cold, wet days/nights reminds me why I am doing it. Six years ago, my father-in-law, Stan Harrison, lost his long and difficult battle with cancer. I will run the London Marathon in his memory, and for all the other millions of people affected by cancer, in the hope that one day we will beat cancer”.
With less than 2 weeks to go, Paul is busy preparing himself – sure to be an emotional and challenging day; Peters & May have no doubt that Paul alongside the 50,000+ other committed Marathon runners will make families, friends and colleagues proud. All running for their own individual and deserving causes, let’s just hope the sun makes an appearance on the big day!