23rd Of April by Sam Torr

An inspirational trio from a Flintshire timber manufacturing company are celebrating their success in completing the London Marathon in the hottest conditions on record.

Steve Morgan, managing director, Andrew Baker, finance director and manager John Vaughan, from the P&A Group in Mold ran the iconic London Marathon on Sunday (22nd April) to raise money for Action for Children.

At the beginning of the year, P&A chose to support the Charity for 2018, with a host of events in the pipeline including marathons, Iron Men Challenges, triathlons and more.

Steve described the Marathon as one his “toughest but biggest achievements”, in his long list of fundraising events.

“We did it. Every step was worth it for Action for Children. The atmosphere was exciting and the support from the crowd along the way was phenomenal.

“The conditions were very tough in terms of the heat and the sheer number of people running, but I was determined to keep the pace and give my all and complete in order to raise the funds for our 2018 chosen charity.”

Steve finished in 04:19:15, just behind Andrew at 03:58:47 and John, who suffered with back pain still powered through and finished in 05:36:50.

“I was very pleased with my time in view of the hot conditions and I am so pleased with my team, not only in terms of us running, but also the support that we had from the team back home,” Steve added.

The fundraising target for the London Marathon is £6,000, which the company has almost reached. The overall target is £10,000 for the year, which P&A feel confident that they will exceed given the reaction so far.

Key sponsors for the London Marathon include Skat Transport, ECC Timber, Lloyd Spar Quarries, Farrall’s Group, Hanson UK, Compass Finance, Seevent as well as iData, Spotnails Ltd, Office Envy, Humphreys Signs & Print, the Linde Group and Dutton and Peters.

Andrew Baker, finance director at P&A said: “I am so glad that I managed to complete in under four hours. It was the support of of our sponsors, staff and friends of P&A that kept us going to the end.

“A huge thank you to our sponsors as well as customers and friends of P&A who have given us their total support in the lead up to the Marathon. Moral support and encouragement, as well as the financial support, is so important when faced with a 26 mile marathon.”

Action for Children help disadvantaged children across the UK from before they are born until they are into their twenties. Its 7,000 staff and volunteers operate over 600 services, improving the lives of 370,000 children, teenagers, parents and carers every year.

Manager at P&A Fencing & Timber Buildings, John Vaughan said: “The Marathon was a gruelling experience in the heat, but a fantastic experience nonetheless.

“I wasn’t going to let back pain stop me from running but the support from the crowd was off the scale and a whole new experience which kept me going to the finish line.

“With our local Action for Children support centre in Mold doing so much for the community and children in North Wales, I know what we did is very worthwhile.”

Continuing to take part in events is very important for the company following the success of previous years when as a group, P&A employees raised over £15,000.00 for The Alzheimer’s Society, over £6,000 Meningitis Now and over £21,000 last year for Cancer Research UK.

P&A are close to achieving their target of £6,000 for the Marathon. If you would like to support them, click here.