Ben and Sarah’s two ultra-challenges for the British Heart Foundation

Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery and Sarah

Betws-y-Coed bed and breakfast owners Ben and Sarah Hudson are planning to run two ultra-marathon challenges during 2022 to help raise essential funds for the British Heart Foundation and in memory of Sarah’s late father.

The couple, who are both keen endurance runners and members of North Wales Road Runners, intend to tackle both the 50-mile and the 100-mile events in Chester next year, and have only recently returned from a spell of warm weather training in Cyprus, where they also took part in the Cyprus Marathon.

Sarah unfortunately lost her father in October and said that he too was a former athlete and now hope to cover some of the same picturesque routes through the leafy lanes of Cheshire, where her father used to live, and where they still have family roots.

Ben and Sarah have just launched a special JustGiving fundraising page with a target of £1,500 to highlight the need to support the British Heart Foundation, and to help fund special life-saving medical research to help the world’s biggest killer.

Sarah explained the background to this couple’s extraordinary challenge and target, stating: “We are raising money for the BHF because we want to help make a small difference. Ben and I will be taking on, not one, but two ultra-challenges in memory of my Dad, James Ian Ferguson.

“He used to do cross-country and fell running whilst at university in Manchester and for many years afterwards, so I think inherited some of his running madness.

“Despite being fit and healthy all his life, Dad had to have a triple by-pass in 2015. He also suffered from Type-2 diabetes and had several small strokes resulting in vascular dementia.

“We will both be taking on the Chester 50 and 100-mile ultras, which cover routes through the County of Cheshire where Dad once lived.

“The British Heart Foundation’s focus is to fund cardio-vascular research. Each year they fund research into all heart and circulatory diseases, and the things that cause them. Heart disease, strokes, vascular dementia and diabetes are all connected, and they are all being addressed by this organisation.”

*If anyone wishes to donate towards Ben and Sarah’s epic fundraising challenge for the British Heart Foundation, just click on this link, and donate whatever you can afford:
https://www.justgiving.com/remember/923647/James%20Ian-Ferguson