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A PARTY has been held today in honour of a 2023 London Marathon runner who raised £3200 for Brora Hub.
Staff and users of the hub showed their appreciation of Innes Mackay’s efforts on their behalf with a cake, a bottle of fizz and home-made cards.
The hub is run by social enterprise group Engaging with Activity (EWA) who are contracted by NHS Highland to provide a programme of activities to boost the health and wellbeing of local people.
Staff also dressed up as ‘joke runners’ wearing T-shirts, bandannas and with numbers pinned to their chest, to escort Mr Mackay, who completed the April 24 marathon in an below-average time of 3:49:38, through the building’s main corridor and into the room where the party was being held.
Mr Mackay lives with his wife Victoria and daughters Poppy and Mabel in Somerset but his mum Catherine Mackay returned to Brora five years ago and is a regular at the hub.
He visits her every month and said that he had decided to run the marathon in aid of the hub because it gave him “great peace of mind” to know that his mum was there twice a week, was given a hot meal, and had friends and people looking out for her.
“Having that peace of mind is very important to me,” he said.
His wife joined in the fundraising drive by holding a coffee morning and his children contributed their pocket money. Brora Primary School also pitched in with funds from a coffee morning.
Hub manager Kath Hunter said at the gathering: “The amount raised is huge and will really make an enormous difference to us. We really, really appreciate it.”
And speaking on behalf of hub users, Irene Hardwick said: “We cannot thank you enough. I think you are so brave! How did you manage 26.2 miles? We are so proud of you.”
Mr Mackay, who works in the motor trade gave a fascinating presentation on how he got into running.
He revealed: “I left school aged 16 and by my early twenties – around 15 years ago – I had managed to drink and eat myself to a large size. I weighed just under 16 stone. I feel in the last decade I have turned myself around and am living a much healthier lifestyle.”
He is a huge advocate of Parkrun which he takes part in every Saturday. He is a Junor Parkrun volunteer and even enlisted his mum as a volunteer on one occasion she was visiting him. But Mr Mackay has gone on from Parkrun to take part in more hardcore runs – last year he ran three 50k trail runs and an Iron Man triathlon.
“I am predominantly a trail runner and the London marathon was my first road race,” he said.
He secured a place in the race through a ballot and ran 40-50 miles a week leading up to it. He had hoped to raise £500.
Of the race itself, in which 48,000 runners participated, raising an overall £55 million, he said: “It was mindblowing – intense. Mile 20 was really difficult. That was when it really started to hurt!”