Communications officer to run 3 marathons in 3 days for hospital that saved his son
23 March 2016
Gloucestershire Cricket communications officer Luke Sellers is running run three marathons in three days over Easter weekend to raise money for the hospital that saved his baby son’s life.
The 32-year-old - who writes for the club website and reports on our NatWest T20 Blast matches - will start from Southmead Hospital, Bristol on March 25 and finish at Cheltenham Cricket Club at around 6pm on March 27.
Luke’s route will take in more than 8000 feet of hills along the Cotswold Way in aid of the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
The journey echoes that taken by Luke’s son Arthur when he left Southmead to go home for the first time after 12 days in the NICU.
Arthur was born by emergency caesarian at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on October 17 2015 but was rushed to Southmead after born with a number of serious health issues.
Once there underwent a state-of-the-art cooling treatment to help his body recover and also needed an operation on his skull.
Arthur – who is now five months old – is now doing well and not showing any detrimental effects from his difficult start in life.
Luke – who also works for the Gloucestershire Cricket Board - said: "I have never done a single marathon before - let alone three - but I wanted to push myself to the limit to support the NICU's priceless work. They saved our son’s life and my wife Catherine and I feel we owe everything to the staff there.
“We have called the run “To Hell and Back for Southmead NICU” as this is going to be the toughest challenge I have ever undertaken. I would be grateful for any support that the Gloucestershire cricket family are able to give.”
In addition to his role as communications officer , Luke is one of the county’s coach education tutors and also coaches on the Gloucestershire boys and girls junior performance progammes.
As a youngster played for the county age groups and 2nd XI and will be accompanied on the run by former Frocester and Thornbury spinner Peter Church who he met in the county under 11 squad 21 years ago.
He is currently player/coach at Cheltenham CC previously held the same role at Lechlade CC.
If you would like to support Luke there are three ways you can help.
- To sponsor Luke please go to https://give.everydayhero.com/uk/to-hell-and-back-3-marathons-3-days-8000ft-of-hills
- To help promote his challenge please go to facebook.com/TohellandbackforSouthmeadNICU/ and like an/or share the page.
- To help celebrate finishing (or laugh at the pain he is in!) please come along to the Cheltenham CC at 6pm on Easter Sunday
