With seven months until the big day, we have beaten all our own records and have 35 runners already signed up for Team LOOK.
Thanks to the tenacity of Jo Lomas, Project Support Assistant, who has been recruiting our team for the next London Marathon, every one of our charity places has been filled.
In the team are four visually impaired (VI) runners, two of whom are LOOK Mentors and part of the our flagship mentoring programme which connects VI young people aged 13-17 years with older VI peers. The Mentors are trained by LOOK and they share their life hacks and lived experience with teenagers who are navigating life with no, low, or changing vision. The LOOK Mentors who are part of Team LOOK 2024 will run with a Guide Runner, with a tether attached to their wrists.
Ruth Storey, Mentor Project Manager at LOOK, is one of the runners who has signed up. She says, “I have already started training and am loving out there in the Herefordshire countryside, enjoying the crunch of autumn leaves under my trainers, and the smell of logs burning. It’s not always easy making myself get out there, but like all of us, we’re doing this to support VI young people and their families. I know first-hand the difference it makes – that’s my motivation!”
Fundraising by the marathon runners provides vital funding to our small but mighty charity. We have 33 runners signed up plus two additional places for the Guide Runners, making it 35 in total. This is more runners than we have had before, and the earliest by a long way that we have filled all the places.
Emma, from Clyro, will be running her third London Marathon for LOOK and Adam Dyson, from Malvern, is also returning to the team, this time as a Guide Runner. They are pictured here at the start of London Marathon 2023, proudly wearing their LOOK vests.
