I seem to be writing a lot about Steve Cody recently (can you tell I am a fan?!)! Well last weekend Mr Cody was pursuing another personal goal – he ran a half marathon in New York and did it in a great time too. The very same weekend we had the Great North Run which is the UK’s most famous half marathon. This year it was a very special occasion for Adam Chataway who is a friend and client. Adam was supposed to have been getting married that weekend but his fiancée Vicky was tragically killed last October as she cycled to work. Adam, Vicky’s family and his family, refusing to let her light be extinguished, decided to write another chapter in her life so that her enthusiasm and zest for life would never be forgotten. He and his friends (a group of truly amazing people) decided to raise money for a cause that Vicky believed in passionately – getting fresh drinking water to poverty stricken villages in Ethiopia. Vicky’s Water Project was born, a target of £226,000 was set and the first donation was the £10.88 that Vicky had in her pocket when she died. Over the last year Adam and his friends and family have been fundraising via many events: I wrote about a poker night that we had for the charity in my blog a while back.
The Great North Run marked the culmination of the programme. It was the most fitting platform as Vicky and Adam had run it many times before. Adam, his father the famous Olympic athlete Sir Chris Chattaway (who was Roger Bannister’s pacemaker) and 190 of their friends and family ran in honour of Vicky, raising enough money to smash the target. Furthermore the TV coverage featured a segment of film that had been shot in Africa when Adam, his parents and Vicky’s Parents went to Ethiopia to visit the villages that they were to be helping. It was incredibly moving to see what we had all been involved in actually coming to fruition and I felt very privileged to have been a very very small part of it. Adam even ran a half marathon in Ethiopia with Haile Gebrselassie who went on to smash the world record at this weekend’s Berlin Marathon. He was wearing a blue ribbon in memory of Vicky and I like to think that she gave him the extra incentive to break the record.
It’s not often that I am genuinely in awe of someone but Adam has to be the bravest man I have ever met. I cannot express how much I admire him. He has worked tirelessly and unselfishly to ensure Vicky has a real and fitting legacy. It goes to show that true love endures. 
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