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by Max Titmuss
One evening in a dank, seedy, liquor-soaked Beijing boozer, I talked myself into something daft. Across the table sat my friend, boasting of his recent marathon triumph. To try and deflate him a bit I claimed that running a marathon was 'easy' and 'for wimps'. I may have even said 'anyone can do it - I could probably do it in my fencing kit'. Instantly seeing I was full of it, he called my bluff: there was a marathon just on the horizon, "why don't you run it with me?", he asked. "It's in May and it's on the Great Wall," he continued. Sheepishly I asked: "On the Great Wall? Isn’t that really hilly?”, hoping he would tell me it was on a different, flatter, but nonetheless-still-pretty-great wall somewhere else in China. “Yes, that’s the one. Would you like to sign up now online?” And so here I am, destined to run a marathon (which I have never done) on the Great Wall of China (which is quite long and hilly) in my fencing kit (just daft). Yet with your help, dear readers of the Leon Paul blog, I am hoping to turn this uncomfortable experience into something worthwhile: to help a charity which does valuable work for people suffering from the neurological condition Ataxia. A first training test run? ;) (Picture © Max Titmuss)
What happened to Max's cousin Alice is a sad example - here are his words: "Alice was born on bonfire night in 1993 and the event was celebrated with firework displays across the country. She was the youngest of her grandparents' seven grandchildren and was a gentle, unassuming little girl who enjoyed all the noise and activity surrounding her as she took her place in the large extended family. Ataxia began to affect her when she was 18 months old. One of the effects of Ataxia is sight loss and Alice became blind and gradually regressed to being like an infant again, dying a year later".
Alice Butler (Picture © Max Titmuss)
Winner of the 2024 Kings Award for Enterprise