Race to REMEMBER

Emmerdale star TONY AUDENSHAW on taking part in the London Marathon to honour his late wife, Ruth

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LONDON MARATHON
SUNDAY, 8.30AM, BBC1, & 2PM, BBC2 SPORT

When Emmerdale star and keen runner Tony Audenshaw lost his wife Ruth – who was just 43 - to pancreatic cancer in 2017, she left him a letter that included a special request. Should Tony run the London Marathon again, Ruth wanted her husband to do it for Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Eight years later, Tony - known to millions as B&B owner Bob Hope in the ITV1 soap - will be pounding the capital's streets this Sunday, and the stars have aligned. For not only is Pancreatic Cancer UK the event's official charity, but the race also takes place on what would've been his and Ruth's 29th wedding anniversary. Here, in an exclusive interview, Tony, 60, shares his story with TV Times...

You and Ruth ran many marathons together. How did that passion come about?

I had just started running when I joined Emmerdale in 2000. Chris Chittell [who plays Eric Pollard] was part of the TV Times running team for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, and said, 'Come and join the team, Tony!' So I did, and it was a brilliant experience.

I was doing the New York City Marathon one year and Ruth took part in the International Friendship Run [a 4k fun run before the event] and really enjoyed it, and then she got into running as well. So we both did marathons and we'd go to London if we could, then in October, we'd go away with friends on holiday and do a marathon at the start of the week - it sounds horrendous, doesn't it?!

We both ran our best-ever times at the London Marathon in 2006 - she broke four hours and I broke three hours - so it was a really special place for us. The last time we ran it was in 2015, and Ruth was diagnosed later that year.