Channeling a one-time Dustin Hoffman, Tom Smith was among 28 runners who took on the once-in-a-lifetime Virtual London Marathon in support of the National Deaf Children’s Society on 4th October Tom finished the marathon distance of 26.2 miles in 4 hours 56 minutes and has smashed his fundraising target of £2,000, with almost £3,000 raised to date.
In place of the traditional route through London, Tom ran from his home in St Helier along a coastal road towards St Aubin’s bay, along the railway walk towards Corbiere and back to St Helier via Jersey Airport. Tom was accompanied on his run by his wife Liv and supported by his sister-in-law Vicci Grogan and close friends Kate McCaffrey and Louis Smit, who ran and cycled the second half of the route with the couple. They were cheered over the finishing line by Vicci’s Partner Steve and their niece and nephew, Hayden and Harper.
Tom was inspired to take on the challenge because, in his words: I was born with a high frequency hearing loss and have worn hearing aids from a very early age. I decided to combine my love of running with my desire to raise some money for the incredible work the National Deaf Children’s Society does supporting children and their families who live with hearing loss.”
Tom works as a Financial Reporting Manager for Aztec, a financial services group, and lives in St Helier with Liv.
Tom said:
“I had an amazing day and was very lucky to be running the entire race with my wife who, along with our support team, helped me through. Despite the weather we beat our personal bests and succeeded in reaching our target time!
“My desire to raise money for the National Deaf Children’s Society has only grown as I’ve experienced how difficult it is communicating with people wearing face masks.”
“Knowing where our money would be going was also an incredible motivator to push as hard as I could to the finish line!”
Claire Lubbock, of the National Deaf Children’s Society’s fundraising team, added:
“I want to say a huge thank you to Tom for taking on this genuinely one-off version of the Marathon for the National Deaf Children’s Society. We are so proud of you.
“It’s through wonderful efforts like this that we are able to keep on doing what we do, supporting the UK’s 50,000 deaf children and their families, now and into the future.”
