Driffield endurance athlete smashes fundraising target despite injury

A Driffield runner who is raising money in memory of a colleague has smashed his fundraising target despite having to retire from an endurance challenge through injury.

Mark Ireland, Area Farms Manager for Soanes Poultry, completed 60 of the 80 mile Hardwolds challenge at the weekend before a fall in the rain and the dark caused an ankle injury that forced him to retire.

Of the disappointment, Mark said: "It's the first time that I've never finished a race and it had to be this one, but on the plus side, I have more than doubled my fundraising target and I may be able to play the sympathy card to raise a bit more!"

Mark set himself a target of £500 for Papworth Hospital Charity in memory of Soanes Poultry's technical manager Helen Bettley, who passed away earlier this year. His current total stands at £1,160, with more donations welcome atwww.papworthhospitalcharity.org.uk/appeal/mark-ireland-runs-the-hardwolds-80.

Although Mark only started running in 2015, he is no stranger to ultra-marathon events having completed the Hardmoors 55, the Lakeland 50 mile and the 100k Race to the Stones. Mark was one of over 200 athletes who took on the Hardwolds challenge from Hessle to Filey that was won by Cees van der Land in a time of 12 hours and 24 minutes.

Mark's fundraising initiative is the first in a series of events that the Middleton on the Wolds business has planned to raise money for charitable causes in Helen's memory.

Soanes Poultry is a family owned business which has been rearing and preparing chicken for 71 years. It currently employs 120 people and rears five million chickens a year on its Yorkshire farms and sells its chicken and game to butchers and independent retailers in Yorkshire and to wholesalers nationwide.