Firemen running the London Marathon to raise funds for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire

Among the many thousands of runners taking part in the Virgin London Marathon this month will be a group a firefighters giving it their all for a very special cause. A group of 18 firefighters who attended the Grenfell Tower blaze are training to run the London Marathon in a bid to raise vital funds for groups supporting local people affected by the fire. Nine of the firefighters are from the Red Watch at North Kensington Fire Station and the other nine are from the Red Watch at Paddington Fire Station. The firefighters were among the first to arrive on the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire on June 14 2017. Seventy one people are now known to have died. “We’re doing circuits of Hyde Park as a group once a week and the rest of the time we’re having to do our training individually. “We’ve managed to run a few 13-milers already as a group. We are trying to ensure we’ve got the stamina we’re going to need.” Tom is one of only two runners with marathon experience. “I ran London in 2016 and did it in a little over four hours. I was aiming for 3:30 but I was carrying an injury. This time round we’re running as group. We’ve got runners of varying ability and we’re really focused on the fundraising so anything around five hours would be great.”

posted Tuesday April 17th