Ultramarathon runner hits £8,500 for cancer charity

A grandfather has returned to an ultramarathon six years after he said his forced retirement from the event saved his life.

Dale Thomas, from Burghfield, Berkshire, took on the Desert Ultra, a 155-mile (250km), five-day trek across the Namib Desert in Namibia last month.

The 66-year-old completed day one, had to medically retire on the second day but still ran about 93 miles (150km) of the course.

Mr Thomas raised about £8,500 for the Wokingham-based Ollie Young Foundation, which collects funds to support paediatric brain tumour research in honour of a boy who died a day before his sixth birthday..

Mr Thomas retired from the Desert Ultra in 2019 with a bad back and was later found to have prostate cancer.

Now in remission, he said he wanted to take on a challenge to show what he could still do.

"I have a choice to do a challenge but some people who are affected by [the Ollie Young Foundation]...they had no choice but to do the challenge. They had to do it. So why shouldn't I?" Mr Thomas said.

"We have an amazing community in Burghfield and the village, friends, donations, the support, has been absolutely superb. I could not have asked for anything more."

The Institute of Cancer Research receives 80% of the charity's fundraising, while 20% is donated to Young Lives vs Cancer and Helen & Douglas House hospice in Oxford.

"I am not sure if my wife's listening but there will always be a challenge for me and I will do another challenge next year.

"I will do it to support the foundation. I just haven't quite decided what that might be just yet," Mr Thomas told BBC Radio Berkshire.