Inverness man to run half marathon in grandfather's memory
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
AN Inverness man will tackle a half marathon this weekend to raise funds for a cancer charity in memory of his late grandfather.
James Thomson (29), who is a trainee funeral director at John Fraser & Sons, will be running the Inverness Half Marathon this weekend.
This will be the longest distance run competitively by Mr Thomson, who had only previously run a 10k in October and who had picked up running in summer last year to prepare for that event.
In preparation for the challenge, he is raising funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK and so far more than £1800 were collected on his Just Giving page.
Mr Thomson said: "My grandfather John Macsween passed away in May if 2007 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
"I thought I'd raise as much money and awareness ad possible – this is a charity that sometimes doesn't get as much recognition as it should because once you do have it, the survival rate is quite thin.
"The donations have been absolutely incredible, it's such a rewarding thing to see, it makes what I am doing worthwhile. "
He said he is looking forward to running at the event.
"Preparation is going well," he added. "I have done a test run of the full distance a couple of weeks ago to see if I could do it. I have finished my training so now it's just the case of resting until Sunday.
"I have been training since around October time, when we did the Inverness 10k with John Frasers & Son. I only started running in preparation of that event so I am quite new to running and this will be the longest distance I have run competitively.
"I have been counting it down from month to weeks to days so sat will be a bit of a restless sleep, but just need to get going!"
