Two Denton women completed London Marathon for NSPCC and Royal Air Force Association

Two women from the same village completed the London Marathon for good causes.

Mandy Crawford and Rachael Turner, both from Denton, took part in the London Marathon separately on Sunday.

It was the first time Rachael, aged 47, had run a marathon, clocking in a time of four hours and 51 minutes.

She raised around £4,700 for the Royal Air Force Association, making and selling cakes and bunting as part of her fundraising efforts.

Rachael said: “I’ve always run since I was 12/13 years old and my dad did the Belfast marathon, so it’s always been like a childhood dream, but getting into the London Marathon, you just can’t get in.

“I’m in the Royal Air Force and RAFA get so many charity places per year and they’d ended up with some additional ones and I just happened to see them advertising, so I rang up and said could I do it?”

After a mini interview, Rachael got the go ahead to take part in the London Marathon, setting a target time of four hours and 44 minutes.

She said: "I wanted 4:44 that was my target time but by mile 18 or 19 I started to struggle a little bit then the pacers of 4:45 overtook me and I thought I’ll do myself a proper injury if I try and chase them, so my next aim was to do it without stopping, so I had a little bit of a dizzy spell for about 20 seconds and I realised I needed to breathe.

"I got to the end in 4:51, which surprised me because I thought I’d gone over the five hour mark, so I was really chuffed. I absolutely loved it."

It was also a first London Marathon for Mandy, aged 45, although she had ran marathons in Paris in 2019 and in Brighton last year.

Mandy said she was "feeling good" after Sunday, completing the marathon in four hours and 25 minutes.

She said: "It was my third marathon. I did have a little bit of an injury, so I’ve been having physio for about six weeks.

"I think with London as a runner, it’s the race of your life, so to get an injury about 10 weeks out, is not the best thing to happen, but the whole experience was incredible."

So far, Mandy has raised over £1,000 for the NSPCC, with the total being match donated by her workplace.

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