iSightCornwall Marathon Runner Smashes his Fundraising Target

iSightCornwall’s London Marathon 2022 Runner, Hoby Allen successfully completed the epic race last month and has now smashed his fundraising target of £2,000.

Hoby was one of 42,000 people running in the TCS London Marathon this year and, joined by guide runner Kev, he pushed himself to the limit to complete the challenge.

We are always grateful to those who decide to run the TCS London Marathon in aid of iSightCornwall  as every penny raised goes towards helping people affected by sight loss in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

But this year we were particularly delighted when Hoby put his name forward as he has been one of our clients for many years. Hoby has retinal dystrophy, which causes severe sight loss and so has been involved with iSightCornwall since he was in Primary School.

Hoby Allen

Hoby trained for many months to prepare for the event and also hosted his own concert ‘HobyAid’ to help fundraise which raised an incredible £1,318 towards his £2,000 goal.

He has been supported by friends, family and locals during both his fundraising and his training and they all tuned in on the big day to follow his progress and cheer him on.

Unique Experience

Hoby said: “The London Marathon is just one of those unique experiences that is worth doing at least once in your lifetime. It was a tale of two halves for me as I was running really well up until about mile 16 but then my ankle and foot started to hurt which did slow me down in the second half.

“The atmosphere during the race is incredible, you have people cheering you on during the whole route which can be motivating but it does cause additional challenges for people with sight loss as it makes it harder to hear your guide runner.

“It was a massive relief to finish, anything over 10k is a struggle for me so I’m very proud to have finished a whole marathon. I’m also happy with how amazing the fundraising has been, I have had so much support from my local community and so many people have been getting involved to help me.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated and supported me during this journey, to my guide runners Kev and Amanda, and to all of the bands and supporters who made HobyAid such a success. Thank you also to Jake Denton, my parents and my partner Sian for being my biggest supporters.”