Ben's Running Joke - I'm doing the London Marathon!

My father-in-law was the incredibly talented and enigmatic Liverpudlian actor Tony Haygarth. He was a raconteur loved by many and known for playing numerous roles including 'Vic Snow' in 'Where The Heart Is', 'Mick Naylor' in 'Emmerdale' and my personal favourite of course 'Mr Tweedy' In 'Chicken Run'!

We sadly lost him back in 2017 due to Alzheimer's, just a few months before his daughter Katie and I were to be married and the loss on the day was palpable.

Alzheimer's is an awful disease which everybody knows someone affected by and having watched the years my wife and her family struggled with Tony and the effect it had on them, I am determined to do something to try and help.

Research is our only chance of changing the ending for people affected by dementia.

So the least I can do to help the cause is put my body through the very daunting challenge of running 26.2 miles in The London Marathon on Sunday 27th April 2025.

It's a marathon in more ways than one as, being an actor myself, I'm appearing in a play up in Lichfield with the race sandwiched on the Sunday between performances on the Saturday night and the Monday evening the day after!

Will I be able to train? Will I be able to actually do it? Will I be able to walk afterwards? Many questions. But I'm in it for the long run... quite literally.

Any amount, and I mean any, whatever you can contribute, would be hugely appreciated and will certainly spur me on through the months of training and then the big day itself. Even if I have to crawl over the finish line in April and be dragged on to stage the next day, at least we will have all helped fight back against something that causes so much pain to so many.

Let's go the extra mile together... Thank you so much xxx

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