The team from mse did it...

Stop Press...Total raised so far £2,265

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a small but determined team from mse gathered to do battle with the elements. They bravely faced the worst the heavens could throw at them and prevailed, despite all the odds, overcoming torrential driving rain and gusting winds, to complete the courses at the CHASE 10k and 4k Loseley run.

Pictured in a brief respite in the rain, from left to right: Sarah Maeer, Tim Alden, Bruce Simon, Peter Tappin, Liz Slatter, Michael Ginsberg, Felix Ginsberg, Janice Mitchell, Tony Rapley, Sarah Ginsberg, Bharati Kulkarni, Tricia Tappin. Missing from the photo but present on the day, Margie Seward and Kate Bowker.

For all competitors, the atrocious conditions added to the personal challenges of completing this hilly and demanding course. The paths underfoot were like river beds, deep with mud, making progress challenging in places and exhausting. Notably the mse team of 14 included people of wide a variety of ages and abilities, the youngest was only nine, Felix Ginsberg, who completed the 4k race in just over half an hour and, without exception, everyone gave their all.

Malcolm Roberts of Castle Studios also generously gave his time freely to take photos of the team.

From the team, poor Kate Bowker fainted and fell before the start but even after having sustained a nasty blow to her head, she was able to stay to see the others home. Everyone else completed their chosen distances and all competitors recieved a medal and tee shirt from CHASE to remember the day by.

Two photos above kindly supplied by CHASE showing activity and warm ups in the rain.

Michael Ginsberg said about the event, "You really had to be there to experience how bad the conditions were and I am so proud of our team (and all the others there on the day) who entered into the spirit and took away a great sense of achievement in having persevered and, in doing so, having helped to raise money for such a fantastic charity as CHASE."

At the time of writing this, mse have raised at least £1200 and the total is still rising . They hope to reach £1500 which they will add to the £500 mse donated to CHASE earlier in the year.

Michael continued, “On behalf of the company, I would like to say a massive thank you to all those who participated on the day, none of us will forget the experience in a hurry but I believe we are richer for it. Thanks too, from the bottom of all our hearts, to those clients, friends, relatives and businesses who have given so generously in donations. Together we "did good" on Sunday and thank you for your support.”

More information about CHASE and the event is available on the website and, if you have not yet made a donation but would like to do so, simply follow the link to donate securely online, or do so in any other way you prefer.

3rd November 2009