And Finally

Former Xfm DJ to run solo London Marathon

By | Published on Friday 9 November 2012

Marsha Shandur

Former Xfm DJ, ‘Inbetweeners’ music supervisor and long-term friend of CMU, Marsha Shandur, is running the London Marathon this weekend. Though if you’re now wondering whether you’ve just missed six months of your life and it’s suddenly April, don’t worry, what we should really have said is that Shandur is running the London Marathon route.

Marsha had originally planned to take part in the New York Marathon, raising money for the cancer charity of London’s Royal Marsden hospital. But that race, of course, was cancelled after New York City was hit by Hurricane Sandy, leaving parts of the city badly damaged and half of Manhattan without power. But having done the training, and with so much sponsorship money pledged, Shandur, now based in Canada, decided she had to run 26.2 miles somewhere, and opted for her home city of London. She will run the route of the UK capital’s big race this Sunday, kicking off at 10.30am.

Says Marsha: “I completely understand why the New York Marathon was cancelled – the victims of Hurricane Sandy needed the city’s energy and resources far more than we did. However, it was still important to me that I ran the 26.2 miles somewhere. Partly because I had trained for so long – I’m no athlete, so it was a big deal for me to spend five months running almost every day – but also, I wanted to justify the thousands of pounds that people had donated to sponsor me”.

Shandur has picked the Royal Marsden’s Cancer Charity because it has treated one of the former DJ’s heroes, Lisa Lynch, who has written the blog and the book ‘The C Word’ since being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 28 in 2008.

Shandur: “Lisa is such an incredible writer. Her blog and book have frequently made me laugh out loud and then weep silently – usually within the same paragraph. The funny, frank and moving way that she has talked about cancer has armed me in the most incredible way. Given that cancer affects one in three of us, she’s done a wonderful service to me and so many other people, by showing us what it’s really like – no punches pulled – but entertaining us along the way. She truly is my hero”.

Details of the solo marathon run are at this link, while you can sponsor Marsha here.



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