PRESS RELEASE - Taking a 20th bite out of the Big Apple! Charity Chief Exec hits marathon milestone

Walk the Walk Founder and Chief Executive Nina Barough CBE (front centre) takes part in her first New York City Marathon in 1996.

A charity Chief Executive will be taking on her 20^th New York City Marathon on Sunday 3^rd November, two decades and £133 million of fundraising after completing her first.

Nina Barough CBE first Power Walked the New York Marathon in a bra in 1996 with a group of 13 friends, raising £25,000 for breast cancer research. Just a few months later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself. Nina’s friends and family supported her by walking the London Marathon in their bras, raising another £25,000. 

In 1998, only half of Nina’s friends received places for the London Marathon, but undeterred, Nina created a one-off night-time Power Walking marathon called The MoonWalk London, the first ever mass fundraising event for walkers. Walk the Walk, the breast cancer charity which Nina then founded and still leads has since raised an incredible £133 million. 

But it was in New York that Walk the Walk took its first steps and the charity has taken a team of supporters to the Big Apple every year since 1996.

In 2012, when the Marathon was cancelled in the wake of devastating damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, Nina led Walk the Walk’s team, as they distributed aid on Staten Island, where the marathon had been due to start. She has only missed three further marathons since 1996 - two through injury and one just after she’d given birth.

Nina Barough CBE, Founder and Executive of Walk the Walk said:

“The New York City Marathon is incredibly special to me - it’s where Walk the Walk started. When I look back, I think of those 13 very naïve but very enthusiastic girls turning up back in 1996 and while everybody else was oiling their limbs, we were all putting on our lipstick and making sure that we looked good!

All I knew was that I’d had this dream about Power Walking the New York City Marathon in a bra to raise money for breast cancer and we were making it happen. It was exciting and it was fun. Wearing bras like we did was incredibly controversial at the time which made it even more pleasurable!

It amuses me that all these years later I’m still going back to New York and I get such a thrill from it. The New York Marathon is like no other marathon that I’ve ever done and I’ve completed quite a few now! The support from the crowds on the streets is just amazing and they’re rooting for everyone. I love walking through the different boroughs – each one has its own very different personality.  The route has changed slightly over the years, but I almost feel as though I could organise it myself now, I’ve done it so many times!

It also thrills me when I think back to each of my New York Marathons that my time for completing each one is practically the same. The greatest thing is that I do it, because I can. There are so many people, even young people, who say they’re not sure they could do a marathon and you know what, I rock this one every year! My level of fitness is such that I think, how great it is that I can actually go and do a marathon.

The Walk the Walk team has become very well-known in New York over the years – they call us the Bra Girls! There was one chap who used to wait every year for about six years on a particular street corner with doughnuts for the Bra Girls, which was really lovely.

I’m really looking forward to this year’s New York Marathon - no-one ever knows what a marathon will bring, but it’s pretty special to be doing my 20^th.”

Walk the Walk makes grants to fund both research into breast cancer and to help improve the lives of those living with cancer now.

FREE TO USE IMAGES OF NINA BAROUGH TAKING PART IN THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE

Walk the Walk’s flagship event, The MoonWalk  London, takes places on Saturday 16^th May 2020. Sign up now at www.walkthewalk.org

For more information, contact:

• Sally Orr at Walk the Walk: 07796 080 675 [email protected]
• Claire Duncan at Walk the Walk: 01483 741430 [email protected]
• Jennifer Broh at Walk the Walk: 01483 741430 [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

Walk the Walk

• Walk the Walk specialises in fitness and Power Walking challenges.
• HRH The Prince of Wales is the official Patron of Walk the Walk.
• Walk the Walk has so far raised almost £133 million.
• As a grant-making charity, all funds are raised for Walk the Walk and then granted to where the charity feels they will do the most good.
• Walk the Walk funds are granted to projects that not only support research, important to all our future health, but also support a variety of projects that are supporting cancer patients now throughout the UK.
• To date grants have been made to charities and organisations throughout the UK including Breast Cancer Now, Breast Cancer Haven, Penny Brohn UK and hundreds of NHS Hospitals and Trusts for which we supply Scalp Cooling Systems. These are wonderful machines, which help many people undergoing chemotherapy to avoid losing their hair.
• The charity also has a community grant fund which each year grants to smaller organisations. Helen Rollason Cancer Charity, Tenovus Cancer Care, The Christie, Cancer Kin, FACT and others, all receive funds which enable them to continue their work.
• ‘The MoonWalk’ is the flagship event of the charity currently held in London, Scotland and Iceland.

The MoonWalk London 2020

• Saturday 16^th May 2020, Clapham Common
• Two challenges are available: Half Moon (15.1 miles) or Full Moon (26.2 miles) challenge
• This year’s theme is “Out of this World”.
• All participants must be aged 13 and over to take part
• Walkers are asked to raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship
• This is the 23rd MoonWalk London
• For more information, go to walkthewalk.org