Horsham man raises funds for cancer charity with 15 park runs in 24 hours

A Horsham man has run 15 park runs in 24 hours to raise awareness and funds for a cancer charity.
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Hadley O’Dwyer, 32, was aiming for 24 runs (5km each) in the time, but exhaustion around 11pm last night (Friday July 27) meant he had to stop after 13.

However, he was back in the park this morning for two more, including the official weekly park run with hundreds of others taking part, so amassing a distance of around 47 miles.

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Hadley, a member of Horsham Joggers and Horsham Trinity FC, was raising awareness and funds for OcuMelUK, a charity aiming to provide information and support to anyone affected by ocular melanoma.

Hadley starts his 15th and final park runHadley starts his 15th and final park run
Hadley starts his 15th and final park run

He said: “A good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with ocular melanoma during a regular eye test and was sent straight to A&E.”

According to OcuMelUK, ocular melanoma is the most common kind of eye cancer in adults with approximately 600 new cases of uveal melanoma in the UK each year.

Hadley was on course for his running target for most of the day.

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However, after completing around 40 miles, he was struggling to keep up with the schedule.

He said: “It was so cold and my face and hands were tingling which wasn’t a good sign.

“I picked up a number of blisters, and at one stage I was weaving from one side to the other and couldn’t run in a straight line.

“My friends convinced me to stop at that stage. I couldn’t eat or sit down and the gaps between each park run were getting shorter and shorter as the run itself was getting longer.”

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But Hadley returned this morning for another run and then had a rousing reception from other runners during today’s regular park run to round off his remarkable effort.

If you want to donate to to Hadley’s ‘moneygiving’ charity page go to https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=ocumeluk24hr&pageUrl=1