How stepfather's cancer inspired James's 105-mile run to Snowdon

‘Painful’ challenge raises £3,400 to support charity

- Yasmin Sarwar

CARING James Collis ran 105 miles from Newcastle to Mount Snowdon to raise thousands of pounds for Cancer Research after his stepfather was diagnosed with ‘terminal but treatable’ cancer.

James, of Birches Head, completed the 105-mile route in four ‘painful’ days days but said imagining stepdad Alan Burgess’ pain is what pushed him through.

His efforts have earned £3,416.25 for the charity.

Seventy-year-old Alan, of Market Drayton, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma two years after his symptoms started. Doctors struggled to find the primary source of his illness, offering him the drug brentuximab vedotin on trial.

Now his family say he has an ‘85 per cent chance’ of five more years of life.

James, aged 39, started his journey at Newcastle’s Cancer Research shop. He ran to Whitchurch, on the first day, to Corwen on the second and to Betws-y-Coed on the third before the final leg to the top of Mount Snowdon.

He said: “I knew this was going to be a tough challenge but it turned out to be one of the toughest I have ever done.