Ben Dunlop, who works for the multinational engineering firm Atkins, attended a charity dinner last year in aid of Aspire. Ben was attending the event having recently becoming acquainted with Aspire after they provided practical help to a colleague of his who had sustained a spinal cord injury, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.

Keen to give back to the charity that delivered a lot of support (eventually enabling his colleague to get back to work) Ben was quickly persuaded to sign up for the London Marathon and raise money for Aspire. In fact, it wasn’t long before Philip Hoare, UK and Europe CEO at Atkins, had signed up to run alongside Ben for Aspire. “Phil and Ben the Marathon Men” had been born.  

However, apparently having surely one of the best running taglines doesn’t make the training any easier for what is undeniably a gruelling challenge. Ben and Philip have no doubt they will be fit and ready on that all important Sunday on April 22^nd, but the journey there hasn’t all run smoothly. Neither of them have attempted the distance before so dedicated regular training was vital for the Atkins pair, however, disaster struck on January 21^st when Ben broke his arm. This left him out of action and unable to train until mid-March, taking a considerable bite out of his training time. Nevertheless Ben remains confident:

“Not great preparation but life does that at times and the cause is a great motivator.”

Ben told Aspire what exactly crossing the finishing line will mean to the dynamic duo come Sunday:

 “For both of us it will mean a huge amount, not just for the personal achievement but also in the knowledge that we have raised money for a charity which has helped someone we know in such a positive and effective way.”

 

You can support Phil and Ben here

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