Call for charity runners to saddle up for sporting festival at Cheltenham Racecourse!

She is among a team of theatre staff from Gloucestershire Hospitals who are swapping their scrubs for their sports gear to take part in the Cheltenham Running Festival on Sunday June 11th.

They are doing it for our charity which has been named the official charity partner for the event. We have a limited number of free places left to fill and we are calling for more runners to sign up to help raise money!

There are distances for all levels of runners at the racecourse from 5km and 10km routes to a half marathon. Cathy will be joined by five of her colleagues and her husband Daniel as they attempt the full half marathon route.

The 39-year-old anaesthetic assistant was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 2022 following a routine scan and she had surgery to remove her right kidney in September.

“The hardest thing was being away from work and the team for three months as they are like my extended family,” she said.

“When I found out about the race in January, I thought it was a great goal to set myself as part of my recovery. Some of the training has been mind over matter as not every run has been easy, but I am hoping to get around the racecourse as best I can.”

The money raised by the theatre team will go towards providing specialist equipment and improvements to facilities to the hospitals over and above NHS provision.

“We would like our sponsorship money to be used to help two departments including Urology as I know first-hand how fantastic the team are there. They looked after me so well and are always checking in to see how I am,” Cathy said.

Scrub Nurse Woyciech Koczorowski, who will be running with her, said the whole team was behind Cathy after her diagnosis and recovery last year.

“Cathy has recovered so well, and we keep forgetting she only had an operation just over six months ago. She is the heart and soul of the department,” he said.

Not all their team are experienced runners and they often go on joint training runs together and have a message group to support each other as they prepare for the big day.

Cheltenham Running Festival suits both novice and experienced athletes and the route will be chipped for anyone wishing to officially log their times. There is also a children’s race.

Race Director at RunThrough, Lucy Harfield said: "We at RunThrough are proud to be supporting Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity through this year's Cheltenham Running Festival. We are aware that not only do running events have an incredibly positive impact on the participants themselves, there is a far wider impact on local charities when working together to engage the local community.

“The funds raised will go on to provide state-of-the-art equipment and care over and above that provided by the NHS. Something far longer lasting than those finish line endorphins.”

Festival donations will support projects including the charity’s Big Plus Fund to transform the hospital environment. The charity wants to install more sky ceiling light panels to provide a feeling of the calming outdoors in treatment rooms for patients, a baby loss remembrance garden at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and a number of wellbeing safe spaces.

Community Fundraising Manager, Emily Williams, said: “We are so excited to be the official charity partner for this brilliant event. The money raised by all of our runners will help support such a wide range of areas at the hospitals from the Gloucestershire Oncology Centre to the new remembrance garden. We have a limited number of places available on a first come, first served basis and we’d love to hear from any runners who want to take part.”

To register for a place, visit cheltenhamrunningfestival.com/cheltenham-gloucestershire-hospital-charity/ . You can also support the Theatres Team with a donation at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/catherine-parry4.

Thank you to anyone who chooses to sign up and help support projects that make a real difference to our staff and patients at our hospitals.