Bath Half Paves Way For Children’s Cancer Charity

Children and young people’s cancer charity, CLIC Sargent is celebrating after reaching the £500,000 fundraising milestone through the Bath Half Marathon.

The BATHALF has been one of the charities largest fundraising events in the South West since 2008 and during that time, they have had almost 2,000 runners taking part in the 13.1 mile race, who have all helped them on their way to reaching this impressive goal.

Kayley Waller, Running Events Fundraising Manager for CLIC Sargent explained how the funds raised through the annual race have paid for their support team in Bath.

She said: “We are so thrilled with the amount that our CLIC Sargent runners have raised through the Bath Half Marathon. It costs CLIC Sargent around £70,000 a year to fund our services in Bath where we provide grants for the families of the children and young people that we support and have two nurses and a social worker based at the Royal United Hospital.

“Our fantastic runners will have more than covered the cost of these services in the area since 2008 and we would like to say a huge thank you to them, their friends and family who sponsored them and to Running High, who organise the Bath Half for letting us be a part of such an amazing event.”

The 2014 BATHALF will take place on Sunday 2nd March, with almost 15,000 runners expected to pound the city streets. CLIC Sargent has 300 people signed up to run for the race for them this year, with a fundraising target of £75,000.

Since 2000, when Running High took over the organisation of the BATHALF, the race has raised approximately £14million for charity.

Mel Taylor, Charity Director at Running High commented: “CLIC Sargent’s amazing fundraising achievement is a fine example of just how much the official charities of the BATHALF can get out of the event. The team at CLIC Sargent have been an absolute joy to work with and their hard work over the past seven years has really paid off.

“Last year, we announced that runners in the 2013 BATHALF raised an incredible £2million for our official race charities. This total has risen every year since we took over the organisation in 2000, and we are on target to see an increase again in 2014.

“We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to each and every one of our runners who use the BATHALF as a fundraising event; their passion and commitment is truly inspiring.”

To find out more about the Bath Half Marathon, which takes place this weekend (Sunday 2 March), go to www.bathhalf.co.uk. Entries for the 2015 BATHALF will open on Monday 3rd March 2014.