‘Mad’ Eastbourne hospital workers running 124 miles each for charity

Billie-Jo Anderson, from Old Town, said she and her DGH cardiac department colleagues Emma Salter, Lizzy Hughes, Melanie McLean and Melanie’s daughter Ellie are about halfway through their individual May 200k Strava challenge.

The group has so far, as of Thursday May 14, raised £700 out of their target £1,000 for the Matthew 25 Mission in Seaside, which provides meals and offers practical help and support to those who need it.

They started their challenge on May 1 and will end on May 31, where they will have completed a combined total of 1000km, and Billie said the main motivation was to give something back to the community.

Billie-Jo said, “There was a challenge on the Strava app saying ‘how far can you run in May?’ So we decided to do the 200k challenge. Then we realised how far it was.

“I think people thought we were mad at first. People have been saying ‘do you realise how far that is?’ We are definitely feeling our age. We’ve all got sore feet now.

“We’re doing our own routes and completing the challenge in little bits, like splitting it up and doing 10k runs after work.

“We just thought we have been getting some lovely things from people sent into us at the hospital and that it would be really nice to do something for our local community. We wanted to help people who are really vulnerable.”

The mother-of-three said she hopes the group will be able to finish the race together – as long as it’s possible to socially distance – and that they are ‘really grateful’ for the support they have had so far.

Billie-Jo said, “We have raised quite a bit so far and we are really grateful. It keeps us going. The sponsorship reminds us what we’re all doing it for.”

For more information and to donate, visit Billie-Jo’s GoFundMe page.

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