Marathon men's 24-hour Wollaston run for cancer fund powered by jelly babies, flapjack and determination

A pair of marathon-mad mates have successfully completed a 24-hour run for charity in honour of a county headteacher battling pancreatic cancer.

Jason French from Wollaston and Earls Barton's John Wayland, 44, joined in a huge fundraising effort to help Chris Bailey with the weekend-long #ForMrBailey campaign.

Chris was told he had stage four pancreatic cancer in October and he and his family set up a JustGiving page with a goal of £50,000 to help battle the disease.

The friends, who are members of Wellingborough and District Athletic Club and regular runners, completed just over four marathons - 105 miles - during the 24 hours.

Jason, 39, who is a construction consultant, said: "The morning before we were due to start was awful. I’ve never been so nervous about anything in my life but the worst part was having to continually force food down when we really didn’t feel like eating. It became a real chore.

"Sunrise on Sunday morning was very uplifting. We ran over to Earls Barton to see John's family and were greeted with coffee.

"The run back to Wollaston with the sun on our faces was lovely. The very best part for me was all the support as we came to finish."

Starting at dusk on Saturday at 4pm, the pair ran loops around Wollaston battling blisters, nail loss, wind and rain, cheered on by villagers, family friends and pupils from Grendon Primary School where Mr Wayland is headteacher.

He said: "Some of the details of the run are slowly coming back to us - magic tea, Eric Clapton blasting out in the dark, hot chocolate delivery at goodness knows what time and flapjack.

"The level of support we received was unbelievable. Jason and I tried to note down everyone we saw throughout the event and the list runs to well over 100.

"We must thank the staff and pupils from Grendon CE Primary School, friends and complete strangers who made banners, rang bells, offered jelly babies, clapped and pushed us on.

We'd also like to thank our friends at Wellingborough and District Athletics Club whose knowledge and encouragement was priceless. Stuart Hacker for bringing a whole community together behind the #formrbailey hashtag, Wollaston Therapy Centre for booking us in for a highly anticipated post-run massage, Fred and Sasha at Stronglines for being on speed dial for any emergencies during the run and for offering each of us a physio session to help mend our legs, Kacper Laskowski, our guest of honour, who joined us for a lap, the Rev Adrian Morton for granting us access to our Parochial Hall base, everyone who donated to Chris’s JustGiving page and our families for once again entertaining a crazy idea, making us believe we can achieve it and putting us back together when we are broken.

"The 24-hour run pushed Jason and me to our physical and mental limits and, at times, into some pretty dark places but we did it and will remember it forever with pride.

"There are many details that we have forgotten or that our hazy in our minds but I can say with certainty that Chris Bailey was never once out of our thoughts.

"This one was all #ForMrBailey."

The pair finished survived their marathons with some blisters, swollen ankles, tight calfs, a minor Achilles injury.

Jason added: "Quite early into the night we got news that Chris had been taken to A&E feeling quite unwell. This spurred us on.

"Seeing our friends, family coming out to support us definitely played a big part. Knowing that if either of us dropped out, it was going to make it far more difficult for the other we really wanted to finish. At no point did we really contemplate discontinuing."

To donate to the #ForMrBailey campaign click here.