On what felt like the hottest day of the year, a man running in a curly wig holding a bucket caught the public’s attention in Moses Gate Park.
Nick Lever, 46, ran a 42-lap marathon around Crompton Lodges in fancy dress on Sunday.
In his bucket, he collected donations for Victim Support, a charity that helps victims or witnesses of crime, whether it has been reported to police or not.
He did it for friend Kate Sutcliffe, landlady of Little Lever’s Queen Anne pub. Only in May, her brother, Neil Sutcliffe, had been killed in Portugal.
The family paid beautiful tributes to Neil, a Bolton School old boy, in The Bolton News.
Nick said: “With all the knife crime that’s about, it’s quite a sensitive subject for everybody.
“People want to donate. Knife crime is on the rise and Victim Support is what you don’t hear about when people lose somebody.”
When he heard that his friends would do a Sunday Funday event in Queen Anne’s pub to help the charity, he wanted to join in.
Nick said: “I came up with the idea of doing a marathon for them in the local community so people could get involved.
“We decided to do it around Crompton Lodges. We measured both lakes and they came to one kilometre.”
Since a marathon is 26 miles, he would need to do quite a few laps.
Nick said: “We figured out that I needed try run around both lakes 42 times to do a marathon.”
He added a fun idea to encourage participation.
He said: “We said if we raise a certain amount I’ll do it in fancy dress, so I had to commit to that.
“We put it out there and everyone got behind it.”
Nick committed.
He donned a curly wig and a bucket and got to running on that hot day.
He said: “It wasn’t easy, it was my first marathon, I’ve never done anything like that other than a 10K a long time ago.
“I thought it would be a challenge. Because these are my friends, I wanted to push myself and make it mean something.
“My partner did the first 10K with me, and my older daughter supported me halfway through toward the end when I was lagging.”
And he was floored by the Little Lever community’s support that day.
He only expected to raise £500. People donated over £1,500 to Victim Support that day, an absolute “fortune,” he said.
Even strangers came to wish him luck.
He said: “People kept randomly turning up bringing things.
“They brought me drinks, bananas, chocolate bars, ice creams and beer, would you believe.
“Sometimes they would do a lap with me just because they wanted to. It was such a hot day, it was lovely.”
From 7:30 am to 3:00 pm he ran and walked 42 laps. It ended as all good marathons do, in the pub.
Before he turned up to Queen Anne’s Pub Sunday Funday charity event, he was welcomed in style.
He said: “We walked through the village and when we got to the pub, people were all in the road.
“I knew people would get involved. We’re quite a good community in Little Lever.”
If you’ve been affected by crime and you need confidential support or information, call Victim Support free on 08 08 16 89 111.
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