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Stephanie Fisher recently joined 25,000 women in Hyde Park for the ’5K Hydro Active Challenge’ (previously the ’Flora Light’) to help raise money for the charity set up in her friends memory. Stephanie undertook the 5 km race with University College Oxford friend Becky Hewitson, and as an added twist they ran tied together and made it a three-legged race.
The girls hobbled 5k to raise funds towards The Stephanie Marks Diabetes Appeal. Stephanie Fisher had known Stephanie Marks her entire life (their mothers meeting at Oxford), and having been diagnosed a diabetic before her friend, it was a huge shock when Stephanie Marks died from the condition at age 17.
”I am not entirely sure where the idea of doing it 3 legged came from”, explains Steph, ”we wanted to do something different and luckily Becky is just as mad as I am and thought it sounded fun! There was a fantastic atmosphere. The weather was lovely and sunny which was fantastic for our picnic afterwards, but rather hot whilst running round clinging to another person!”
The girls raised almost £400 with amazing encouragement from Steph’s father who sponsored £2,000 divided by the number of minutes that it took us to get round – ending up sponsoring slightly more than he bargained for as the girls made it round in 37 minutes. ”We both really enjoyed it and will probably do it again next year, although the problem now is that we have to think of something even more bizarre than running it three-legged because otherwise our sponsors are going to get very disappointed!”
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With the growing number of people being diagnosed with diabetes, The Stephanie Marks Diabetes Appeal was launched in June 2003, to significantly raise the awareness of diabetes and provide a specialist centre within the grounds of St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey. Ian Botham OBE is Patron of the appeal which has already raised £271,000 from public support. The project continues to attract new supporters as word spreads throughout the catchment area served by the Trust.
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