Steve’s marathon effort for family

A man’s marathon effort has raised awareness of a rare life-limiting condition that his friend’s children are battling.

Last Sunday, Steve Tucker ran from his Holbeach home to Springfields in Spalding and back again twice, the equivalent of 26.2 miles.

He did so for the Batten Disease Family Association and his run doubled as the launch event for the Blisters4Memories campaign that’s raising money for those that suffer with the extremely rare neurological disease.

Only 30 children in the UK have the life-limiting, degenerative disease which will not only take children’s vision, memories and physical abilities, but also eventually their lives.

Two of those children are brothers Finley (9) and Harrison Dodkin (4) of Wisbech.

Their parents, Sarah and Ben, have been raising awareness of the Batten Disease Family Association for the last few years, particularly through the Pedal4Memories initiative which aimed to fundraise to allow children with Batten Disease to go on memorable trips.

Now the running group Blisters4Memories has been set up and Steve’s run was the first such event in its name.

He wore orange which is the Batten Disease Family Association colour.

“It went really well,” said Steve, who was joined by a host of his Halmer Harriers Running Club members along the way. “It threw it down for the first hour but it was fine after that.

“I don’t think I could have done it without my Halmer Harriers colleagues and the support I had along the way.

“There were 14 others who ran alongside me doing a range of either two miles or 20 miles while keeping socially distanced and together we did a total mileage of 157.6 miles.”

Those runners included Steve’s wife Sue Tucker-Reynolds and step daughter Holly Reynolds while Martin Wallis acted as pacemaker.

Also running were Alex Gills, Dawn Allen, Vanessa Smitheson, Di Lettice, Lucy Gill, Colin Crump, Tim and Katie Baxter, Marie Sampson, Sam Hall and Julie Thorold.

Special support came from the Dodkin family, especially Finley and Harrison alongside brother Arthur (7).

“The entire Dodkin family were popping up every 20 minutes or so on the route urging me on.

“They’re a brilliant family and it was great to do this.”

To donate to Blisters/Peddals4Memories visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/pedal4memories