With the PlusNet Yorkshire Marathon around the corner, long term Rhinos fan Lee Hebron is looking forward to taking on his first marathon since 2000, having overcome cancer in 2014 and raising over £3000 for two of his most important charities.
Sunday morning will see Lee join over 7,000 runners for the PlusNet Yorkshire Marathon, 15 years on from running the London marathon in 2000, and the dad of two is proud to be able to raise funds for two charities very close to his heart:
“Jane Tomlinson appeal is a fantastic charity, I have had three cancer scares myself, lost my best friend last year to cancer and my partner has had a scare as well, so it’s such a good opportunity for me to give something back to the people who have contributed to helping me in the past, said Lee.
“The Leeds Rhinos Foundation is a great charity as well, with the way they help provide so many opportunities for people in my community, I just want to do my bit and raise as much as I can to support that work going forward. It will be nice to get the message out there by wearing the Foundation T-shirt around York on Sunday and more people will hopefully be aware of the charity and want to support it as well.”
After a tumultuous year in 2013, when diagnosed with Lymphoma among other health problems, Lee decided to get back into running and training to improve his fitness after becoming cancer free and seeing the birth of his son Hayden in April 2015.
After signing up to Run/Walk with the Rhinos at the beginning of the year, the 41-year-old has exceeded his own expectations with fundraising, even receiving sponsorship from some television celebrities:
“Fundraising has gone really well, combined with the 10k event I’ve raised over £3000 and even had some sponsorship from TV’s Paddy McGuiness and Alex Simmonds from Rugby AM. Lee added.
“I’ve been struggling a bit with a sciatica problem all year so for me it’s really about completing it, so I can bring in all my sponsor money. Without the injury I’d say I would probably aim for about 4-and-a-half hours but until you actually go out and do a proper marathon, you can never tell how it’s going to go with the weather and climate and with injuries, it’s all about how you feel on the day.”
The Boston Spa born fan has tickets to see his beloved Rhinos in the Grand Final on Saturday and hopes the club he has had a long term relationship with, will provide him with an added boost going into Sunday morning by completing the treble. Commenting on the weekends events Lee added:
“I’ve been coming to Headingley since 1978 when I saw my first ever match and work every match day selling programmes at Headingley, so it will be great to see the team win on Saturday and hopefully I’ll still be buzzing on Sunday morning during the run to help me get round.
“The whole family are coming on Sunday to watch, so I’m really looking forward to the event, I’ve enjoyed the whole year with all the events the Leeds Rhinos Foundation have done around these runs, so it will be good to finish off on a high this weekend.”