Over one hundred Sussex runners follow giant foot to the finish line
By: Tom Furnival-Adams
Last updated: Monday, 10 April 2017
Over one hundred Sussex alumni, students and staff tackled the Brighton Marathon and BM10k on Sunday 9 April.
They ran to support Brighton and Sussex Medical School’s (BSMS) ground-breaking research into podoconiosis (podo), a common and debilitating, but completely preventable tropical disease.
Leading by example, podoconiosis expert and BSMS Professor of Global Health Epidemiology Gail Davey donned a giant foot costume as she completed the BM10k in an impressive 48 minutes and 28 seconds.
Professor Davey's work has led to an effective treatment programme that costs just £15 to help one podo sufferer for a whole year.
In addition to our runners, more than fifty volunteers from across the University community signed up to cheer on the team from the Sussex water station at mile 14 (at the bottom of Second Avenue, Hove).
Thanks to Sussex Runs to Prevent Podo team members and their generous supporters, the Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO) is aiming to raise £50,000 to support BSMS’s vital work on podo.
Sussex alumni, students and staff who took part in the marathon or BM10k – whether as a Sussex Runs to Prevent Podo runner, as a supporter or as a runner for another charity – were invited to the Sussex marquee in the Charity Village, next to the Marathon/BM10k finish line on Madeira Drive, where staff were on hand with congratulations and refreshments,
Small Batch Coffee kindly gave their support to the campaign. As well as entering three runners into the BM10k, they provided a coffee stall for the Sussex marquee, offering samples of an Ethiopian filter coffee to fellow runners and supporters.
Exciting plans are also afoot for Small Batch to team up with Sussex on the Preventing Podo campaign on a long term basis when their next crop of Ethiopian coffee arrives in June.
Catch up with the day on social media by searching the #PreventingPodo and #BrightonMarathon hashtags and by following the University of Sussex and the University of Sussex Alumni Network on Facebook and Twitter.