A major half marathon event with 16,000 entries with runners starting and finishing in the Madejski Stadium - home of premiership Reading Royals and London Irish.

More information about the event can be found on the official race web-site

Pancreatic Cancer UK was one of the Official Charities in 2008.

Chris Sumner, race organiser from Sweatshop said "We are pleased to announce we will be supporting two new local charities in 2008, The Duchess of Kent House Trust and Pancreatic Cancer UK. We would like to thank these charities for the support that they have given to the event since we took over the organization in 2002." Sue Ballard of Pancreatic Cancer UK said " Pancreatic Cancer UK, a national charity based in Reading, has worked with the organizers of the Reading Half Marathon over the past few years providing teams of marshals in the baggage tents. We have been very ably supported in this task by the Berkshire Millennium Volunteers. These are local 16-24year olds who give up their spare time to help in the local community. Pancreatic Cancer UK is delighted to have been chosen as one of the official charities for 2008. There is also a sad connection as Chris Brasher, Olympic gold medalist and the founder of Sweatshop who organise the event , died of pancreatic cancer in 2003."

Runners in 2008 included Emmer Green GPs Ian Kemp (1:52:55) and Andy Ciercierski (Andy had to withdraw due to strained calf muscle Weds before the race), Martin Haley (2:06:29) (Andy and Martin lost their fathers to pancreatic cancer), pancreatic cancer survivor Trace Allen (1:57:34), his wife Joy , son Markus and girlfriend Kath as well as Jenny Thorne, Jon Harper and Rachel Forster (02:54:17) www.justgiving.com/racheljennyjon who are ran in support of Rachel's mother see press article, Jenny said "We enjoyed the day, and all managed to finish together, but Rachel was suffering badly from a dodgy knee. She managed bravely to carry on with severely gritted teeth but we had to go gently and were at one point passed by a large badger!". Olivia Skone and Russ Samuel www.justgiving.com/oliviaskone decided to run a later race as they wanted to be with her mother who has pancreatic cancer on mother's day.

Paul Gater (02:24:36) (who lost his mother to pancreatic cancer) and colleagues Martin Teversham and Stuart Reynolds from Cambridge www.justgiving.com/paulgater also ran and Paul said after the race "All 3 of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and have said that we will be doing it again next year... I want to put in a decent time as on mile 10 I thought I was going to have to pull out as I had sharp pains in my Achilles tendon (felt like someone sticking a knife in - owch!), so after a mile of hobbling and trying to ease it off I finally got going again, but I got there and that's all that counts!! It was a great day made even better for the fact we were running for PCUK, well done to you and your team!! The support we received around the course was superb especially when people would shout "pancreatic cancer UK, what's your name?" so I'd shout out my name and then they'd shout "come on Paul, go Paul, go pancreatic cancer" until I was well out of sight... it really helps to spur you on."

Trace and Joy finishing hand in hand

Rachel, Jenny and Jon finishing and Paul Gater after the race

photos courtesy of www.marathon-photos.com

Mechelle Williams (1:57:25) from Barnstable, Devon ran in support of her fellow nurse who is suffering from pancreatic cancer as well as Jamie Crosswell (1:41:30) who lost his grandfather to pancreatic cancer and is using his place as training for the Edinburgh Marathon http://www.justgiving.com/jamiecrosswell

and many others such as local man David Watt (2:05:50) who lost his father to pancreatic cancer http://www.justgiving.com/davewatt and Glenn McCarty (1:55:43) who lost his step-father to the disease and Simon Speed and his brother who lost their father in November 2007 to pancreatic cancer. Also running was Nick Strada (whose works in London and whose father is battling pancreatic cancer in the USA http://www.justgiving.com/nickstrada and Elly Keay (2:18:37) whose uncle died of pancreatic cancer in the USA a few years ago http://www.justgiving.com/ellykeay and Mark Addinall (1:30:49) from local firm Symantec who are supporting Pancreatic Cancer UK with marshalls at Reading Half marathon http://www.justgiving.com/markaddinall Great thanks to other runners Amanda Coneley, Anett Forgo, Brendan Boreham, Elizabeth Begley, Elizabeth Mann, Jennifer Millins, Kate Stockdale, Nick Adlem, Clare Duffield, Chloe Compton and Sajjad Dhariwal. Elizabeth Begley a GP said "It was nice when people recognised the t-shirt - it happened a few times on the way round."

We had over 35 marshals including Berkshire Millenium Volunteers, members of Emmer Green Residents' Association and supporters of Pancreatic cancer UK. Graham Fuller from Emmer Green Residents' Association said "I enjoyed the work in the kit tent, but I was exhausted by the time I got home, and just went to sleep in the armchair!" Krys Duvall said "PCUK had such a high presence. It was good to see some familiar faces.", Purdey Miles from Blue Coat School and the Millenium Volunteers said " thanks! I had a really good time! " and Riya Nawaz another MV said "thanks for the opportunity Sue! it was really good :)".

Whipples Warriors Simon Cunningham, Suzette Smith and Les Niewiara supported the charity on the day and cheered on Trace Allen. Les Niewiara's wife Sue Davison and friend Mark Mulvenna also ran.

Some of our runners and marshals

Reading Half Marathon 2006 9th April 2006 Green Park to Madejski Stadium via Oracle and Reading University sponsor the team. They raised £14,000 The Sweatshop took over the running of Reading Half Marathon in 2003. That year its founder and the founder of the London Marathon, Chris Brasher, died from pancreatic cancer. Hugh Brasher, Managing Director of Sweatshop said "The vital need of pancreatic cancer patients and their families for support and more effective diagnosis and treatments is dear to my heart as my father Chris died from pancreatic cancer in 2003. It is fantastic to finally see a national charity dedicated to helping current as well as future patients. I wish all the Pancreatic Cancer UK runners success on 9th April."

Pancreatic Cancer UK had 36 runners and 19 marshals so there was a good purple presence at Reading Half Marathon. We even had extra unexpected runners from Joy and Trace Allen's running clubs so thank you to them all for their support with especial mention to Katherine and Stephen Ind and apologies to any we missed. Photo shows from back left to right: Martin Haley, Arj Shankar, Adrian Tomkins, Harriet Kemp, Ian Kemp, Graham Robinson, Andy Ciecierski, Les Niewiara, Gary Langridge, front left to right: Markus and Joy Allen, Jenny Gray, Rosa and Immi Niewiara and Sue Davison. It proved impossible to get everyone together at once although at one stage we did have John Walters, the Lygo family and Darren James with us.

Thank you also to the Millenium Volunteers and Pancreatic Cancer UK supporters who joined our team of marshals. Photo shows some of the Pancreatic Cancer UK marshals in the Madejski stadium at 7.30am waiting for instructions. They worked all morning in the kit tent looking after the baggage of half the runners (1-7000). The runners finished in front of a crowd in the stadium. There were around 13,000 runners in total entered in this major event and just under 9000 finished as Reading is one of the top UK half marathons. There were elite international runners and wheelchair athletes. The winner finished in 1hr 5mins. Reading Royals chairman John Madejski also ran the half marathon to celebrate Reading's promotion to the premiership!

See full report on web-page on 2006 Reading Half Marathon