30-year-old Luke Beard, Account Manager at Dawleys Services in Ross-on-Wye, ran the St Michael’s Half Marathon on Sunday, May 14th in one hour and 57 minutes. His personal goal was to run it in under two hours, so he was very happy with his achievement.

This is the fourth half marathon that Luke has taken part in for St Michael’s Hospice since his Nan, Cynthia Linnell, passed away in 2009. Cynthia spent the last two to three weeks of her life at the Hospice, where the care she received was outstanding.

Luke told the Ross Gazette that he, and his family, cannot thank the Hospice enough for the care they gave her during her time there, and the support they gave the family after she passed away.

In total Luke raised £572 for this year’s half marathon, and £212 of this amount came from his colleagues at Dawleys.

Dawleys is one of St Michael’s Hospice’s business buddies and has taken part in a number of fundraising events over the last year, including holding a ‘Big Tea’ and taking part in both the St Michael’s paint runner and 10k Venus Glow walk events.

Most recently, two teams from Dawleys entered the St Michael’s Hospice Quiz and Curry night, where Dawleys Team “We don’t have a name” came first.

It total they have raised over £900 for the hospice through these events.

Read the full report in this week’s Ross Gazette.