Run for James

By Ros Jemmett, Alness Area jogscotland

We were all greatly shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death of our friend and running buddy James Birtles late last year. James was always the cheeriest, smileyest and most supportive chap you could hope to have running beside you, full of encouragement and always lots of craic and laughter.

Remembered: Jame Birtles

One of our jog leaders Aileen Stuart had already organised a 24 hour relay run via her facebook group Alness Runners at Halloween and when some folk asked if it was for a charity, Aileen immediately thought of a charity that James Remembered: James supported over the years, Chest Heart Stroke Scotland (CHSS) and the fantastic sum of over £300 was raised that weekend.

Alness jogscotland were keen to have a Run for James to celebrate his life and his love of running and at the same time, raise a few more pounds for CHSS. On 22 November the Run for James took place, and due to all the Covid-19 restrictions, all the runs had to be socially distanced and organised with permission from jogscotland and scottishathletics. We had five jogscotland groups out, one in Evanton, two in Alness, one in Invergordon and one in Ardross. In addition, there were folk running in Caithness, Grantham in Lincolnshire, Hyde Park in London and all the way down in Cornwall, everyone running together at 11am In memory of our James.

We also had people taking part at different times of the day as they were unable to run at 11am, we even had one of our injured runners, Annie, taking to her bike and cycling for James! The PayPal pool set up now totals £3,065, a fantastic sum to raise and our thanks goes to everyone who contributed. We hope to make our Run for James an annual fun and social event, bringing the running community together the way James did.