The Wiltshire man running 251 miles in three days for charity
Alex Bance sat down with ITV News' Sabet Choudhury
A man from Wiltshire is preparing to take on a 251-mile running challenge over just three days to raise money for a children's charity.
Alex Bance is running from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to Julia's House Children's Hospice in Devizes, covering roughly 83 miles a day.
The 44-year-old has raised more than £5,000 in the past five years and says he is inspired by the charity’s work.
Alex said: "Julia’s House is just the most fantastic organisation. Although they are a hospice, they also care for children with life-limiting conditions.
"Something which is really very special about Julia’s House is they don’t just care for the poorly child, they care for the entire family.
"Often when you have a sick child, a lot of attention gets drawn onto that child and the siblings can feel slightly pushed out so what Julia’s House does is they include the entire family in what they do.
"They’ll bring in the siblings, they’ll run movie nights, they’ll make a whole community and the whole family feel behind it.
"I’m very fortunate with my children that they’re both relatively healthy but people aren’t that lucky so to be able to do something to help people, I feel quite privileged to be in that position where I can do something which benefits other families."
Alex has run 100-mile challenges before for the charity and last year broke the world record for the longest distance running while blindfolded, completing 72 miles in 24 hours.
Starting on Sunday 25 August, Alex will run from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, down to Julia’s House children’s hospice in Corfe Mullen, Dorset, and then up to the Julia’s House children’s hospice in Devizes, Wiltshire.
He said he first decided to do the challenge to motivate his children.
Alex said: "I used to run a little bit, five or ten kilometres, nothing serious and nothing regular.
"Back in 2019 my boys were going through this really negative phase where they would say ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘that’s too hard’ and it was just really irritating me.
"I was like 'come on man, you’re not even trying.'
"So I was trying to instil the principle of ‘whether you say you can or you can’t, you’re right every time.'
"And they’re only little so they’re not really getting it so I thought I’d do it by example so I ran 100km which was long, awful, and painful.
"Just planning out the route has taken hours of research. I’ll be running completely on my own, so I’ll need to buy drinks and food as I go.
"If I can’t get hold of water, it will be a nightmare – I’ll knock on doors to ask for a drink if I need to. And if I need to sleep, it will be on the side of the track.
"It’s the biggest physical challenge I’ve done to date."
Alex's fundraising page is here.