Yahoo News This Bake Off contestant is running the Virtual London Marathon next weekend
While we all breathed a sigh of relief to have the Great British Bake Off back on our screens last night (let’s not mention the upside down pineapple cake fiasco), our first thoughts were ‘I wonder if any of the contestants are secret runners?’
A post shared by The Great British Bake Off (@britishbakeoff) on Sep 22, 2020 at 12:55pm PDT
We’re yet to discover whether any of this year’s contestants love the sport as much as we do, but it turns out last year’s runner-up, Steph Blackwell is taking on the virtual London Marathon next weekend in aid of Cancer Research UK.
A post shared by Steph Blackwell 🦋 (@stephiblackwell) on Sep 8, 2020 at 10:50am PDT
Sharing the news on instagram, the baker wrote, ‘For so many, 2020 has been, to say the least, a pretty traumatic year.
‘Whether it has been health, job or education issues, COVID must have touched almost every family.
‘My family has been no exception. As some of you know, this year, my Dad, Roger, was diagnosed with cancer. Not just one cancer but two, separate cancers, Prostate and Bowel.
‘The diagnosis for a rare form of Bowel Cancer took several months and arrived at the beginning of lockdown. Although the cancer was deemed incurable, the start of his treatment was delayed for six weeks.
A post shared by Steph Blackwell 🦋 (@stephiblackwell) on Aug 31, 2020 at 10:53am PDT
‘Probably like every other family that has been affected by cancer, it has been a massive shock; fear, anger, frustration, helplessness - we’ve felt it all. Despite this, we have tried to remain positive; Dad is fighting so hard and we’re in awe of his strength.
‘Having been confronted with this news, we also felt determined to ‘help’, specifically, by raising money to assist the research projects supported by Cancer Research.
‘On October the 4th, the London marathon are staging a virtual marathon and my uncle John, Dad’s brother and former leader of the RAF Red Arrows, and I, have decided to take on this challenge; it will be “Our Marathon Mission”. Bear in mind, we haven’t trained properly, unless baking counts? and despite running being in our blood, the distance exceeds anything we have ever done before, needless to say, it’s gonna be a a bit of a challenge🤪, but one we’re both so driven to achieve.
‘We will be running/walking/staggering our way around the 26.2 miles in deepest Sussex with other members of our family providing support.’
You can sponsor Steph on her JustGiving page here, she will be joining these other famous faces (virtually), who are also taking on the 40th race next weekend.
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