Upper Sixth Former Olly Pritchett aims to complete the London Marathon this April as his way of saying “thank you” to the Teenage Cancer Trust for “being so good” with his older brother after he was diagnosed with stage 4 Burkitt’s Lymphoma Cancer.
Olly, who only turned 18 in February, will be one of the youngest runners taking part in the gruelling 26.2-mile race and told us, “The support we as a family received from Teenage Cancer Trust really made an impact on how we coped with the situation. The help and support they offered was absolutely incredible and made our journey through it as easy as possible. As a way of giving back, I have pledged to raise money for the charity by running my first ever marathon a matter of weeks after my 18th birthday.”
Olly’s brother, Lewis Pritchett, who was 21 at the time, started an intensive chemotherapy regime in January 2023, having been diagnosed with the rare form of cancer only one week beforehand. The lead up to his diagnosis and his treatment was a whirlwind for the whole family, and, remarkably, after a very intensive treatment program Lewis was classed as in remission a few months later.
Olly, who was not much of a runner before he started training said that he wanted to do something challenging, something he had never done before, explaining “I also wanted to consider the fact I have a choice in what I do, unlike my brother who was very unfortunate.”
Training has been tough for Olly, cramming in his training runs after games on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then going home to revise for his A-Levels, which he will sit in the summer. Weekends have allowed Olly more time and he has been building up the length of his runs and is now up to 20 miles.
Olly said, “My mum is a keen runner so she has been helping me to ensure I do a sufficient amount of training. I’ve also done some events like the GadeValley 17, which are organised training runs.”
In fact, Olly’s mum has herself raised over £15,000 for the charity by running every day for a year – completing over 3,000 miles.
We wish Olly the best of luck and we will all be cheering from the sidelines. If you would like to support Olly, you can donate to the Teenage Cancer Trust via his fundraising page here.
For a little more inspiration, Olly’s brother has documented on Instagram his return to fitness post-surgery and post chemotherapy, and the difference is remarkable!