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St Mary’s headteacher is running the London Marathon for Great Ormond Street

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Dan and Flo with Woody the dog

Dan Crossman, 42, headteacher at Marlborough St Mary’s Primary School will be running the  26.2 mile London Marathon on 23 April. He is hoping to raise over £2000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Dan’s 11 year- old daughter, Flo, is receiving treatment from Great Ormond Street because she suffers from intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) which is a very rare condition. It means she is often tired, has many headaches and suffers mobility problems on her right side. Dan has already raised over £1800. If you would like to sponsor Dan click here.

Dan said, “Flo is amazing and so are the team at GOSH that look after us. She’s recently had ground-breaking surgery to help alleviate some of her symptoms. This procedure can only be done by the neurosurgery team at Great Ormond Street. To us, they are real-life superheroes. We hope that by raising this money, other children can benefit from the amazing care offered by GOSH.”

Dan is preparing carefully for the marathon and is managing to fit in a run from St Mary’s up the valley to Lockeridge and back before it gets dark. He is following GOSH’s own training schedule and is grateful for the advice of their on-line coach.

GOSH have been selected as the main charity for this year’s London Marathon and have at least 200 marathon runners participating with celebrities like Gordon Ramsey also running the course..

Dan hopes to complete the marathon within 5 hours and his family will be there cheering him on in the GOSH cheering booth at Canary Wharf – the half way mark.

“I think that seeing the family half way through will give me the boost I need to carry on and complete the course,” commented Dan.  “I think I’ll be pretty emotional when I cross the finish line, because of Flo’s story. She is the reason why I’m doing it, and also, if I’m really honest, it’s therapy for myself.”

Liz Tait, Director of Fundraising at GOSH Charity, said: “We’re so grateful to Dan and to all our supporters for taking part in this amazing challenge and we can’t wait to be there on the day to cheer everyone on. With the help of our inspirational TCS London Marathon Team GOSH participants, we’ll fundraise to make a real difference to the lives of children with cancer, who are cared for at Great Ormond Street Hospital.”