Congratulations to Marathon Man Olly

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Fulham student ran in memory of singer Alice

Fulham student Oliver Hadden-Paton is celebrating running his first ever London Marathon in a fast time of 3 hours and 52 minutes.

As we previously reported, Olly, 23 was running in memory of singer Alice Martineau, a talented singer songwriter who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis.

Olly, whose brother Geordie also took part and reached the finish line just a minute ahead of him , says: " After a trip around the eight mile mark, I was hobbling and eventually everything started to hurt, but I just gritted my teeth and carried on.

" The weather was beautiful and so many people came out to cheer us on, it was an amazing experience." Olly, who is studing for a Business degree originally aimed to raise £3,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, but says he has had so much support, he has upped the target to £8,000 - and had reached well over £7,000 at the last count.

Before he ran the Marathon, Olly said: " Alice was my sister-in-law’s best friend. When she died in March 2003 the world lost someone very special. Running 26.2 miles will be a challenge, but the knowledge I will be raising funds to help see off Cystic Fibrosis will spur me on to the finish line.”

Alice played regular gigs in London and in November 2002, released a much acclaimed debut album Daydreams, despite being seriously ill and on the waiting list for a heart, lung and liver transplant. She knew herself the transplant was unlikely to happen and died on March 6, 2003 at the age of 30.

Cystic Fibrosis, commonly referred to as CF, is our most common, life-threatening inherited disease and claims three lives a week in the UK. 

Sponsorship money raised for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust by Olly will help fund research into treating and curing CF.  It will also help provide support, advice and appropriate clinical care to the 8,000 babies, children and adults with Cystic Fibrosis in the UK.

29th April 2009