Mando Group creates website to help Marathon Runner

Mando Group design a website to help Ian Drury to raise awareness and money for charity.

At the beginning of the year, after the devastating loss of his son, Ian Drury set himself the challenge of all challenges.

In memory of his son Leighton, who was still born in 2006, Ian set himself the incredible mission of running five marathons in the space of one year, starting with the London Marathon, and going on to Boston, Berlin, Chicago and finally New York. This would be a huge task to complete for anyone; and Ian had never run a marathon before.

Ian has established a ‘Remember You’re Alive’ team for the challenge. For each marathon he has entered himself for, he has persuaded a friend to run with him; both for support before and during the race.  The team has set themselves the challenge of raising £20,000 which will go towards research and support for families with still born children.

Liverpool’s leading website and application development company, Mando Group, designed the ‘Remember You’re Alive’ website for Ian to help raise money for the three charities Ian is fundraising for, PhabKids, SANDS and Macmillan.  http://www.rememberyourealive.co.uk

Kevin Walker, web developer at Mando Group commented:
‘It was a great website for Mando Group to get involved with, as the charity sector always provides you with an extra incentive for making a successful site. As this project is such a huge challenge for Ian Drury it’s nice to be able to contribute to it, by donating our time to this project.’

Training has been tough for all but especially for Ian who has been suffering from a knee injury. A week before the London marathon Ian was contemplating pulling out due to his injury but went on to complete his first marathon in just under five hours.

Ian Drury commented:
‘It was difficult I will not lie; but to think I nearly pulled the plug on the whole thing a week before… I think I actually did ok.’  

Ian’s buddy for the London leg was a previous work colleague, Paul Burgess who commented:
‘A great weekend and real sense of personal achievement would be the only way to sum it up.’

The Boston marathon followed a week later, and Ian’s mate for this stage was Alex Vanobberghen (the good looking one of the group), someone Ian met whilst studying for an MSc in Liverpool. They finished the race together in just over 5 hours.

Ian commented:
“My knees gave up and we started off too quickly….but you live and learn…the next one will be much much quicker”

Ian has four months more of consistent training until the next marathon to hopefully get his knee back on track.

If you would like to support the team and follow their progress take a look at the website. http://www.rememberyourealive.co.uk

Matt Johnson Chairman of Mando Group commented:
‘The challenge that Ian has set himself is one to be admired and commended and everyone at Mando Group wishes Ian and his team of runners the very best of luck with the fundraising and the marathon running.’