Tom’s epic six nation challenge in honour of his dad

Our Associate Land and Planning Director, Thomas (Tom) Relph, has got his running trainers at the ready for an amazing cause.

Tom is taking on an amazing challenge, to raise money for The Christie Charity, in loving memory of his dad, Mark (66), who sadly lost his battle to cancer in July 2023.

The Christie provided Mark’s care and support and Tom will be setting out to raise £8,000 for the charity.

The Christie, is a leading cancer centre in Manchester, treating more than 60,000 patients a year and offering treatment, care, research and education. The Christie is the largest single site cancer centre in Europe and the first UK center to be accredited as a comprehensive cancer centre.

Over the course of 8 months, Tom will be travelling to 6 different locations, including Paris, Florence and Belfast, completing a half-marathon at every place. The locations represent the Rugby Six Nations, which his dad was ever so fond of, along with a pint of Guinness.

Tom said: “Six months on, and he is still very much missed. In honour of his memory and love of a pint of Guinness at the rugby, I’ve rather foolishly decided to run six half-marathons in the Rugby Six Nations to raise money for The Christie Charity, which gave my Dad all the care and support he needed to originally beat cancer and then further support and care once it came back.”

Tom is preparing to complete his first run in a few weeks time and has been training for the past 4 months in the lead up, with his neighbour, close friends and family.