Woman raises £3,000 at Paris Marathon in memory of ‘brave’ father who worked at VBC Premier Blinds in Grantham
A woman has raised over £3,000 after she ran a marathon in memory of her father.
Holly Robinson from Grantham ran the Paris Marathon last Sunday (April 7) and raised £2,345 - with an additional £1,000 being donated by her employer - for The Brain Tumour Charity.
The run and money raised were in memory of Holly’s father Neil Robinson - former company director of VBC Premier Blinds in Grantham - after he died in 2022 of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), an aggressive stage four tumour.
“I think Dad would be really proud of me and all the money I’ve raised - I definitely felt him during the run,” said Holly.
She added: “When we loaded into the starting pen it was at 11.11am, which was my Dad’s birthday (November 11) and they were playing Abba, his favourite band, so I took this as a sign!
“It was such an amazing experience and I made so many memories that I’ll keep for life.”
Neil, who worked at VBC Blinds for 38 years, was diagnosed with the brain tumour in September 2021. He died in May 2022, aged 58.
In a previous article, Holly told LincsOnline that her dad embodied “bravery, empathy, selflessness and kindness, despite battling the monster that is cancer”.
Holly, who is also a triplet, ran the Royal Parks London Half Marathon last October with sisters Ellie and Neeve.
The three raised over £5,000 for the same charity and once again ran in memory of their beloved father.
The other two sisters were unable to compete in Paris as Ellie was in Australia and Neeve couldn’t make it.
However, Holly was able to FaceTime them during her run, as well as her mother and grandmother.
Holly said: “I managed to run the whole race without stopping which I was very happy about.
“You never really know how it’s going to go as during my training plan the longest run I did was 32km.
“The extra 10km was definitely mind over matter.”
With the London Marathon next Sunday (April 21), Holly would like to one day take it on as well as she now lives in the capital city.
She added: “I would love to do it, but I will definitely be looking at other cities to explore while running.”