Over 200 People Braved the Rain and Stepped Up 4 Good to Help Community Organisations Across The District

Over 200 family fun runners and athletes braved the rain on Sunday to complete the inaugural Step Up 4 Good event to raise money for local community projects.

High Sheriff Victoria Fishburn officially opened the Greenham Common event which was supported and organised by Greenham Common Trust and got the Mini Mile runners under way as the heavens opened.

Alex Berry stormed home to win the first race of the day, The Mini Mile, in a fantastic time of 8 minutes and 58 seconds.

Everyone cheered as Martin Randall, who has physical disabilities, crossed the line with his dad Jeff, to successfully complete the Mini Mile and was awarded The Special Achievement Award from Greenham Common Trust Director David Bailey.

Mark Apsey from Reading Road Runners completed the 10k course in a superhuman 35 minutes and 46 seconds to take first place.

Some of the runners are raising money for The Rosemary Appeal – the £4.5m new dialysis and cancer centre at West Berkshire Hospital which is fundraising on https://thegoodexchange.com. It is not too late to support the appeal and donations are being matched by Greenham Common Trust. Just click on http://bit.ly/2ebxhc7 and Donate now.

There are over 250 projects currently fundraising on The Good Exchange platform if you prefer to support something closer to home in your community.

Greenham Common Trust Chief Executive Chris Boulton said: “Despite the best efforts of the weather we had a fantastic turn out of families and athletes who enjoyed this fantastic event. Many thanks must go to the High Sheriff and GCT director David Bailey for awarding the winning trophies. We must also thank race director Chris Sumner, Vickie Randall and their team for creating four great race courses, Mrs B for providing refreshments, The Rosemary Appeal, West Berkshire Mencap and Berkshire Youth, for fundraising in the rain, MSS for keeping everyone safe and all of the wonderful volunteers who helped make the event happen.

“Please donate to your favourite cause on https://thegoodexchange.com.  Step Up 4 Good will be back next year bigger and better. Look out for details coming soon.”

Those who took part in Step Up 4 Good can see photographs of the day. Runners see their official results at www.chipresults.co.uk

After completing the Mini Mile race, Samantha Berry commenting on The Good Exchange website when she donated to The Rosemary Appeal said: “After a fantastic, well organised, family running event on Sunday (Step Up 4 Good) we felt we had to donate.”

Here are the Step Up 4 Good winners: