8 year old Jacob aims to raise £1500 by running marathon distance

Lockdown has seen many people take on new skills and challenges and none more so than an 8 year old boy from Kesgrave.

Jacob Chalklen is running a marathon distance during lockdown in memory of his father’s grandmother, Margaret, who died of cancer in March 2019. Margaret received end of life care at home from St Elizabeth Hospice.

Jacob was inspired by his dad Mark to take on the challenge:

“My dad has inspired me by doing four half marathons over 4 days. He was meant to be doing the Run2Paris challenge, as part of a relay team, at the end of May but it was cancelled because of coronavirus. I talked with dad about raising money for charity and I wanted to fundraise for the hospice”.

“I did the Ninja Challenge with the hospice two years ago and raised £568.26. I wanted to raise lots more so I’m running the marathon in a month to raise £1500.”

Dad, Mark Chalklen, is incredibly proud of Jacob and he has been helping him with the runs:

“Jacob had seen my training and was very keen to do his own challenge. I’m helping him complete the running over a series of days but he is super motivated to take it on and raise lots of money for such a worthy cause. The hospice staff gave invaluable care to my Nan (Jacob’s Gran) and support to my family. This is a positive way of giving back whilst getting Jacob some personal value out of it too”.

The training has been challenging for Jacob with schools being lockdown too: “I haven’t had regular fitness for a while as I’m not running at school or playing football. It’s been tough!”

If you would like to donate to Jacob’s challenge, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Jacobs-marathon