Class act as teacher Lucy takes on London Marathon in aid of Daisy Appeal

London Marathon runner Lucy Bishop with Claire Levy, Fundraiser for the Daisy Appeal.

A TEACHER from East Yorkshire will fulfil a 10-year dream when she takes on the challenge of the London Marathon to raise money for a leading regional charity.

Lucy Bishop, who teaches at Skirlaugh Primary School, has been hitting the roads around her home town of Beverley as part of a training regime which also includes joining the park run on the Westwood every week.

Her fundraising target of £500 is already in sight and Lucy is planning to increase it, with all proceeds going to the Daisy Appeal in memory of her late father, Bill Hutchinson.

Lucy said: “I chose the Daisy Appeal because it’s a great local charity who do important work and was also supported by my Dad.”

Lucy grew up near  Beverley and later studied and worked in Birmingham before returning to the town 11 years ago. She first applied for the London Marathon in 2012 after becoming interested in running but she missed out on selection every year until now.

Lucy said: “I kept applying for this and I was really pleased to get accepted because I understand they receive over 25 applications for each of the balloted places.

“It’s a bucket list thing and something I have always wanted to do. When you watch it on TV it’s just so inspiring and it gets you every time – you sit watching and you want to be part of it.”

From starting off as an occasional runner, she recently joined Beverley Running Club and hopes to increase her participation there when her children are older. The immediate focus is on sticking to the official London Marathon training plan which has meant running long distances over 20 miles in the last few weeks

“I just wanted to get it done and now I’ll be tapering down to shorter distances ready for the big day. If I can get around in under five hours I’ll be happy.

Lucy won’t be wearing fancy dress but hopes people lining the route and watching on TV will spot her Daisy Appeal running vest, and she hopes to help raise awareness for the charity.

Claire Levy, Fundraiser for the Daisy Appeal, said: “This will be a first London Marathon appearance for our new branding and we’re so grateful to Lucy for making such a huge effort and for selecting us as her charity, and we’ll be cheering for her on the day.

“As a charity which helps people on both sides of the Humber we receive superb support from businesses and other organisations but our work is all about people and it means a lot when we can show that the families and friends of those who have had treatment for cancer are backing our campaign to improve facilities.

Since its foundation in 2002 the Daisy Appeal has raised more than £22m. The Daisy Appeal Medical Research Centre opened on the Castle Hill Hospital site in 2008 and was followed, in 2014, by the opening of the Jack Brignall PET-CT Scanning Centre, housing the first in a new type of Siemens scanner in the country.

The latest addition is a Molecular Imaging Research Centre (MIRC) which has been built at a cost of £8.8m and will transform detection techniques for serious medical conditions including cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Once up and running the MIRC will initially be able to produce Fluorine 18 radiotracers, which are currently used in most scans but which are made elsewhere in large scale production units. During the next two to three years the centre will also be able to produce Carbon 11 radiotracers, which have great potential for neurological and cardiological use and will open up other opportunities.

The new building creates the opportunity for the isotopes to be piped directly from the cyclotron to hot cells in the room next door, where the product will be processed, checked and then delivered through a hatch in the wall direct to the Jack Brignall PET-CT Centre for injection into patients, enabling quicker diagnosis, better treatment and improved quality of life for thousands of people every year.

The project has led to the University of Hull becoming a member of the elite UK PET Network, joining Imperial College London, King’s College London and the Universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Oxford. He added that work is also attracting interest from organisations including the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK.

To support Lucy’s fundraising campaign please visit https://bit.ly/LucyBishop2

To find out more about the Daisy Appeal please visit https://daisyappeal.org/