A rugby legend is inspiring one JD Cymru Premier assistant manager to take on his own incredible fundraising feat.
Caernarfon Town’s assistant boss Mark Orme is taking on an ultra challenge on 8 April, running 40 miles to raise money for St David’s Hospice in Llandudno – the place that took care of his mother before she passed away from melanoma.
His route begins at her birthplace, Catherine Gladstone House in Mancot, Deeside, and ends at the hospice – and the day will also mark 17 years since she passed away.
And Orme is reading up on the advice and experience from rugby star Kevin Sinfield, who has taken on a range of similar endurance challenge in his fundraising efforts for motor neurone disease.
“The guy’s a legend,” says Orme, whose day job is as a leisure manager in Conwy.
And he also has huge amounts of praise for the St David’s staff.
“I think you have to probably be a particular type of person to work in that environment, because you’re dealing with other people’s grief consistently,” he says. “It was just that human kindness – the dignity that they treated mum with but also the way that there was sort of no pressure on us as a family, we could be how we wanted to be in that environment for that time.”
Orme has raised money for St David’s Hospice over the past 17 years as well as for Awyr Las, the local NHS charity, after his youngest son was born prematurely.
This fundraiser is likely to be the first of several for Orme in 2024, leading up to an expedition across Iceland in November.
“I know it’s going to be difficult,” he admits. “I’ve recced the route and I’ll run bits of it over the next couple of months. It’s what I’ve said I’m going to do, so by hook or by crook, I’ll find a way to do it.”
Find out more about Mark’s story and how to donate here.
