A month ago, I came across the story of Tobias Weller. Tobias is a 9-year-old lad from Sheffield, England who suffers from cerebral palsy and autism. He was inspired by Captain Tom to complete a marathon using his walker. He completed the 42.2 kms on May 31st, walking day after day, up and down his street. In total it took him 70 days and he raised over 80,000 pounds for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Paces Special School.
But this wasn’t enough for Captain Tobias. He decided that he wanted to do a second marathon this time using a race runner. When I read about Tobias I knew I wanted to support him. Sue suggested I send him a copy of “Marathon Quest”. Unfortunately we didn’t know the address so we popped the book into an envelope and put: TOBIAS WELLER, THE MARATHON BOY, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND. A week later I saw this post on twitter: A marathon guy from Canada called @MartinJParnell sent me a package and it reached me! Well done to the postal service and thank you to Martin.
Since then Tobias has been pushing towards the finish line and on Saturday, August 1st he made it. Tobias had family and friends all around him and one every special guest, Jess Ennis-Hill, 2012 Women’s Heptathlon Olympic Champion. Tobias pipped her at the post. The final leg of the marathon challenge was shown on Facebook live and people around the world were cheering Tobias on. At this point over 145,000 pounds have been raised for the charities. If you would like to support Tobias please go to— justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ruth-garbutt-3
Is that it for Tobias? Is he going to fold up his race runner and go home? I very much doubt it. When you watch Tobias on video you can hear the passion in his voice and see the fire in his eyes. This story is very far from over. GO Tobias GO!
© 2020 Martin Parnell [email protected] www.martinparnell.com
