London Marathon charities

Last week, as we do every year, we invited BAM customers to tell us their story of why they were running the London Marathon and who they were raising money for, with the one that connected with us the most receiving 10% of our takings on a given day (Saturday 21st April 2018 was £1,782.21). This year has been the most difficult ever to decide. I’ve split it two ways so £891.10 each, but it could easily have been 4 ways.

These are the two stories

I watched coverage and saw the team of 9 firemen from A21 Paddington Red Watch running in full kit (25kg I think); against medical advice on the hottest marathon day ever, with collective belligerence they decided to go for it anyway. I absolutely loved that. It will have been a serious effort. Then when I read a lovely reply to my mail last week from Mel, the wife of Guy Tillotson (one of the 9 firefighters), how could I not salute them?
They were raising money for two Grenfell Tower charities and the Firefighters Charity – please read more here.

And yet, this is a message I’m showing in it’s entirety, with their permission, that I decided to split the money with. My sincere apologies to the other truly deserving causes:

“Hi everyone at Bam,

I saw your Instagram post about the London Marathon and thought I’d tell you our story.

My sister (Rebecca) and I will be running for The British Heart Foundation, neither of us were runners before last year but Rebecca suggested that we should do it in order to raise a heap of money for them.

As a family we have lost too many to heart disease and we will be running in their memory; especially in memory of our extraordinary Dad who died very suddenly of a heart attack at just 52. Losing Dad devastated our family and we want to help stop other families experiencing what we have.

We’ve spent a year training and fundraising and have raised over £6000 so far due to the overwhelming support of everyone we know and love. We are so proud to give such an amount but it’s impossible to give too much which is why I’m sending this email.

I discovered BAM pretty early on in my training and now absolutely swear by the seamless briefs. I told everyone I wanted BAM leggings/trousers for Christmas and now have 4 pairs! I won’t run in anything else. On Sunday I’ll be wearing all BAM besides by British Heart Foundation vest, I’m so thankful to have found you guys!

I don’t want to give you a sob story but I’m sure that anyone who has lost a family member will know how determined we are to save others. Our mum doesn’t deserve to feel the pain of grief that she carries every day after losing her mum and her husband in the space of a month. We still need the people that we’ve lost, so we’re running for everyone that needs our help.

Thank you for making such great products, knowing I’m wearing the right stuff makes me so much more confident for the big day!

Hope you’re all having a good day,
Issy & Rebecca (The Reluctant Runners)”

You can read more here.

Thank you to everyone who shared their stories, truly inspirational people, running for amazing causes.