St Mary’s alumna takes on a charity run with a twist

St Mary’s alumna and dentist, Troi Baxter, is teaming up with Kerry Bullen, a who works for a local wealth management company, to break the Guinness World Record for running a marathon while handcuffed together. The women have been training hard towards their goal of tackling the Virgin Money London Marathon in less than 4 hours 30 minutes, to raise donations for Tom’s Trust – a charity which provides clinical psychologists for children suffering from brain tumours, as well as their families.

The trust helps to raise the quality of life of patients and ensure that their families’ wellbeing is supported throughout during medical treatment and the next steps. This issue is particularly close to Kerry’s heart, as her own children attended school with Tom Whiteley, after whom Tom’s Trust is named. Tom’s death from a brain tumour at the age of 9 strongly affected their community. As Kerry said, ‘I’ve been motivated to help the charity ever since’. Over the course of 6 major marathons, starting with London and continuing with Chicago just a week later, the pair want to raise awareness for the charity and a total of £5,000 in donations.

Troi and Kelly are on track for success. During a recent practice run at the London Landmarks Half Marathon, the pair placed 28th out of 5690 women and 375th out of 11,005 overall – a very encouraging result. Yet the training presents some challenges, even for these regular runners:

‘our legs will be in sync but we’re struggling to work out a way to move our arms!’

On 3 October, the pair will set off on the Virgin Money London Marathon from the ‘Green Start’, where celebrities also start their journey. St Mary’s celebrates their drive and wishes them success with their marathon and fundraising goals. To find out more and contribute to their cause, click here.

To hear more about our illustrious alumnae, follow this link or listen to their stories on our podcast, the Pastonian Poddy.