Widowed Yorkshire lawyer Paul Verrico has successfully completed his fundraising challenge to finance a cancer research project at the University of Sheffield. Taking in 10 months, three continents, 10 countries, and 7,300 feet of elevation, Paul has run a total of 265.4 miles (he blames a couple of the marathon courses for being ‘long’ rather than his racing line) in his 10 marathon challenge. Paul is a senior partner at the law firm Eversheds Sutherland and a solo parent.
Paul’s wife, Anna, sadly passed away in 2013 when their children were one and three. Founding the volunteer charity Team Verrico in her honour, Paul has been supported by well wishers to raise over £1.3m since, to support the charity’s core aims of helping families with cancer, financing second opinions on Harley Street, providing effective counselling support after a parent dies to the disease and supporting families struggling after a diagnosis. The charity has also seed funded small cancer research studies.
To make 10 years of the charity’s registration, Paul set out on an epic attempt to raise enough money to fund the Sheffield study. The target was £52,000. We are proud to announce *£69,501* has been raised – corporate sponsors including MCFT, Mainetti, VPS and Eversheds have been key to that. Paul is quick to credit the support of family and friends who ran with him, including his children Alessandro and Lucia in Riga, who completed the mini-marathon for the cause.
Paul’s stats are below:
Marathon name |
Time |
Elevation (ft) |
Also running |
Chicago |
4:15:27 |
197 |
Paul Pugh, Mark Beardmore, Gavin O’Flaherty |
Gran Canaria |
4:41:50 |
633 |
Paul Pugh |
Hong Kong |
4:26:13 |
2,360 |
Stephen Kitts |
Wales |
4:21:36 |
358 |
Nick Cranfield |
Zurich |
4:08:37 |
211 |
Stephen Harrison, Daniel Mitchinson |
Riga |
4:58:01 |
387 |
Paul Pugh, Ed James, Simon Harris, Alice Connell, Mark Beardmore, Jake Perryman, Finn Potter, Alex Penney |
Edinburgh |
5:45:13 |
294 |
Katie Normanton-Bell, James Bell |
Midnight Sun |
4:37:02 |
736 |
Solo |
Filippide |
5:31:01 |
unknown |
Solo |
Oslo |
4:15:53 |
2,310 |
Paul Pugh, David Sullivan |
47 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds of race time.
Paul comments: “We all know cancer is relentless, remorseless, merciless. Some of the folk who have kindly sponsored have very personal experience of that; some are fighting their own public or private battles with the disease, others are widowed to it. The reality is that most cancer treatments are medieval, degrading and ineffective. Anna’s death made me an expert in rare breast cancers. Tens of thousands get breast cancer every year. Few die from it so quickly. Anna was unlucky – a rare, aggressive sub strain of triple negative. Our collective endeavour in accomplishing the 10 in 10 is to fund a cancer research project at the University of Sheffield to help those women. The marathon challenge was tough, but not as tough as chemotherapy. Other people have to go through far worse far more often.’’
Professor Lewis, of the University, explains the purpose of the study: “This funding from Team Verrico is being used to fully investigate a new, potential biomarker in triple negative breast cancer. We are investigating whether this can predict whether a woman with this disease has a high risk of suffering relapse within three years of receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We are analysing tumour samples from women in London and Sydney, and are due to conclude at the end of September. If this new biomarker is validated in this study, it can be used by oncologists to help identify women who require more frequent monitoring after treatment.”
Paul concludes: “Team Verrico is ten years old. I wish we had never had to register it as a charity. It continues to fight against an implacable foe. Together, we have managed to punch back just a little.
“We will allocate the remainder of funds raised to our counselling provision, specifically to help children who have lost a parent to the disease and require immediate support. Thank you again, Love and Light.”
Image: Canva