Deputy Mayor plans his longest ever run to help local cancer patients

George Farquhar, who is also Labour councillor for Boscombe East and Pokesdown, will tackle the 13-mile event for The Dorset Cancer Care Foundation (DCCF).

He volunteered to fundraise for the small, local charity, after hearing about its work to help families suffering extreme financial hardship alongside a cancer diagnosis.

Councillor Farquhar, who is seldom seen without his faithful rescue greyhound Billy, will be Mayor by the time he laces up his trainers for the event next October.

He said: “This will be a big challenge for me, but I want to raise awareness and hopefully some money for this great local charity which is doing such valuable work in our communities.”

Having started running properly two years ago Councillor Farquhar trained ‘sensibly’ to get himself back to fitness through a couch to 5k programme.

Since then, he has taken part in the popular Bournemouth Park Run almost 40 times.

He said: “This year, I ran the Run Bournemouth Supersonic 10k for Macmillan Cancer Support, which was my most challenging run to date.

“The half marathon is a whole new level again. But I’ve started training and I’m looking forward to it.

“I will be charting my progress on Facebook and through a JustGiving page and I hope people will encourage me, give some money to support DCCF and maybe even sign up to run in an event for the charity too.”

Eve Went, co-founder of the DCCF said: “We were honoured when the Deputy Mayor attended our recent annual appreciation evening for our fundraisers. Apparently, he was so impressed by what he heard he wanted to help too and before we knew it, he had volunteered to run the half marathon for us. We were obviously thrilled to bits.

“He is such a whirlwind of positive energy, and we can’t wait to follow his progress and hope others will do so too. It’s truly wonderful to think that the Mayor of Bournemouth will be running for the DCCF next October and we hope others will follow his lead and run for us too.”

The DCCF will pay the registration of anyone wishing to take part in a Run Bournemouth event, in return for them raising sponsorship for the charity. For more details email Penny at: hello@dccf.co.uk

To read more about the Deputy Mayor’s training progress and to sponsor his run for The Dorset Cancer Care Foundation please click here.