Vanessa’s Marathon Tribute

A local woman has gone the extra mile to raise over £1400.00 for Stockdales. Vanessa Wall, 29, a sustainability consultant at URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Ltd grew up in Hale Barns but now lives in Manchester city centre. She recently completed the London marathon in 3 hours, 35 minutes 58 seconds, smashing her time in last year’s Manchester Marathon by an impressive 15 minutes and 26 seconds.

Vanessa had entered the ballot for the marathon on several occasions, but didn’t manage to secure a place in her dream race until this year. She ran in memory of her brother Hew who was cared for at Stockdales until he sadly died, aged just 24 in 2003.

Vanessa said, “The crowds were awesome and lots of people cheered me on which really helped, especially over the last 6 miles. I was so tired at the end I didn’t even notice Buckingham Palace and that’s a pretty big building to miss. I did tell myself that I’d never do it again but am already imaging how I’d do it differently, and hopefully more quickly if I entered next year. Watch this space Mo!”

She went on to say, “As a family, we have continued supporting Stockdales and I blame Hew for getting me into all this running! The money raised will make a difference to someone else’s life and their families can benefit from all that mine have.”

We’re forever indebted to Vanessa for continuing to support us in this way. We really cannot thank her enough, as well as everyone who donated – friends, family and her colleagues at URS. It means a lot to us at Stockdales, we really appreciate what Vanessa has done for us!