Friends to run 10k through all 55 English cities in 16 days in memory of father

A group of six friends will run 10km through all 55 English cities in just 16 days in memory of a father who died from prostate cancer.

Tom Vosper, a 31-year-old marketing manager originally from Norwich, Norfolk, but now based in London, will be running a total of 550km across 55 English cities, where he also aims to visit every city’s football grounds all while raising £10,000 for Prostate Cancer UK.

Mr Vosper and his father, David, who died from prostate cancer in 2017, are lifelong fans of Torquay United and would follow their favourite club to watch them play in various cities, which Mr Vosper described as a fond memory.

“It’s one of my fondest memories I have with my dad, is going to away games and driving off to random cities, towns, even sometimes villages, to watch Torquay play and pretty much lose every time,” he told the PA news agency.

He hopes his challenge, which he named Run The Cities, and constitutes the 55 English cities granted city status by the UK monarch, will raise awareness about the importance of getting regular prostate checks and encourage “as many people to be screened as possible”.

Their challenge will see them run 10km together and each run will start and end at the football grounds of that city.

They will run across four cities and cover around 40km per day for the first eight days of their challenge before covering only three cities and averaging 30km a day for the remainder of their run.

The run will begin in Truro, Cornwall on Saturday where they will run along the south coast towards London, heading to the west of England and venturing north as far as Newcastle, before running across the east of England to finish in Mr Vosper’s home city of Norwich on Sunday September 29.

Mr Vosper will be running alongside his childhood friends, Alex and Ben Robbins, who are brothers and whose father is currently undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, and pals Jon Stanley, Nathan Cooper and Sam Brooks.

Mr Vosper’s father had beaten prostate cancer once but faced a second bout in 2017 which prompted him to organise a football tournament in Norwich the same year, rallying five local Sunday League teams to compete weekly.

“Luckily he was there for the first ever one,” he said.

“He passed in 2017, so from 2018 onwards it’s been the David Foster trophy – I’ve always tried to do something charity-wise, and that was more for a local cancer charity in Norwich.”

Now he hopes to channel his fundraising efforts into raising money for Prostate Cancer UK to fund their research into helping reduce figures showing one in eight men are diagnosed with the disease, according to the charity.

“It’s the statistics you hear in terms of one in eight men in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer. One man will die every 45 minutes due to prostate cancer, so that’s two men a football match,” he explained.

“It’s not just wanting to give something back for what they (Prostate Cancer UK) have done in the past, it’s what they do currently and what they’re going to be doing in the future as well.

“We really want to reduce that number – one in eight is just a mental number when you really think about it.”

He wants his fundraiser to encourage as “many people to be screened as possible”.

“I’ll be 32 in a couple of weeks’ time, and I’m probably equally as guilty of not wanting to go to doctors for any reason due to probably embarrassment,” he said.

“I think that’s something that men need to really realise the severity of what could be happening, and you have to just think of your loved ones around you.

“I know that my dad did everything he could, especially after the first time he got it.

“Even for him doing everything like that wasn’t quite enough so you need to be doing the minimum at least and getting checked and not letting any changes in your body be missed.”

Mr Vosper and his friends will mark the anniversary of his father’s passing on September 28 before celebrating with a drink at their local Norwich pub, The Forum, at the end of their challenge.

To learn more about Mr Vosper’s fundraiser, you can visit: https://www.justgiving.com/page/run-the-cities and to follow their journey on Instagram, you can visit: https://www.instagram.com/run_the_cities/