Brave Telford mum suffering from cancer leads team on London run in underwear - raising £11k for charity
Brave mother Mel Humphreys led her team of friends on a 10km run around London in their underwear to raise almost £11,000 for Severn Hospice.
Mel, who has stage four breast cancer, and her #DoMore4Stage4 team joined over 1,000 women running in their underwear at the Vitality London 10K to promote body positivity and support charity.
The 54 year old, from Apley in Telford, smashed the challenge while receiving a gruelling regime of weekly chemotherapy treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
They visited Severn Hospice to present associate director of fundraising, with a cheque for £10,770.95, which will help fund care for families living with an incurable illness.
Mel said: “It started with my initial idea to take on the challenge of running a 10K, and soon grew into a group of 13. Some of our team hadn’t even run at all before so it was a really big challenge. The weather was really hot on the day and I found it hard all the way around, but we stuck together and supported each other along the way.
“We decided to do it in our underwear because we wanted to do something different – it certainly caught people’s attention! There was such a brilliant atmosphere and the feeling after crossing the finish line was amazing.”
Delighted
The group of 13 women, who travelled from as far as York and Sheffield, trained every Wednesday ahead of the race in May.
Mel, who has been receiving support from the hospice doctors as well as the complementary therapy team, added: “We’re delighted to be able to raise more than £10,000 for the charity. Everyone at the hospice has made me feel comfortable and relaxed, and eased my confidence in even walking into a hospice.
“It made me look at myself about where I would like to die and when we started the fundraiser it coincided at the time of the funding being cut for the Hospice, which was a key driver for us, and really raised my awareness of how valuable this resource is to our community.”
Emma Wood, of Severn Hospice, said: “The #DoMore4Stage4 team went above and beyond to raise money to help us fund care for local families in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Mid Wales.
“To raise almost £11,000 is a fantastic achievement and I can’t thank them all enough for their effort and support.
“We have to raise £2 for every £3 we spend so events and sponsored runs are a great way to fundraise for us and every penny really adds up. We have lots of events to get involved in so check our website for details.”
The fundraising page is still open for #DoMore4Stage4. Anybody who would like to donate can visit justgiving.com/fundraising/domore4stage4
