Hugh Williams-Preece
Mayfield, East Sussex

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides end of life care for around 29,000 terminally ill patients.

After visiting one of Marie Curie’s hospices, Hugh was so impressed and inspired by the nursing care provided for the terminally ill patients, that he decided to do some serious fundraising for the charity. Already a keen endurance event enthusiast, having previously completed the gruelling trans-Saharan marathon des Sables, comprising six marathons in seven days, Hugh thought about increasing the stakes considerably and attempting fifty marathons in fifty days, running from Lisbon to London.

Hugh skilfully promoted his unique and innovative challenge widely on the internet through a dedicated website, via social media outlets and in numerous media interviews. This increased awareness of Marie Curie, raised sponsorship, and even attracted admiration from celebrities. Adventurer Bear Grylls described Hugh’s feat as an epic challenge, and marathon runner Paula Radcliffe said that she couldn’t begin to imagine running so far in such a short space of time.

At the outset, Hugh had set himself the ambitious target of raising £25,000. Shortly after completing the 1,310 mile challenge on 21 April 2010, Hugh was able to announce that he’d smashed his target and had actually raised £38,000 which equates to 1,900 hours of nursing care for terminally ill patients.

Since his heroic challenge Hugh, who runs his own event management company, has given motivational speeches to the charity’s supporters and has mentored staff. Through his speaking engagements and continued involvement, Hugh has inspired others to raise substantial funds for Marie Curie.

Commenting on his Innovation in Fundraising award Hugh said: “I’m honoured and delighted to receive this new award and I dedicate it to the teams who supported me throughout the challenge. I could not have done it without them. I hope I may have also inspired other people who might have a great idea to raise money for a good cause to go out and do it and to remember that nothing is impossible.”

Explaining the judges’ decision to present the award to Hugh, Sue Gwaspari, Director Part Time Volunteering at CSV said: “When I read the submission recommending Hugh for the Innovation in Fundraising Award, I was exhausted at the thought of running 50 marathons in 50 days and immediately wanted to know more about Hugh and his achievements.  To have the stamina and will power to complete 50 Marathons at all let alone in 50 days was extremely impressive but to have the imagination to involve his trusty companion ‘Marathon Dog’ for the last leg to help maximise the chance of publicity in central London was a stroke of genius.  To exceed his target of £25K and secure donations of £38K is an enormous achievement and he should be rightly proud to have been nominated and to have won.  I think his nominator summed it up succinctly and appropriately when they said ‘witnessing what has been achieved by Hugh for Marie Curie confirms my belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things’.”