A super-fit widower is taking on a tough half marathon as he approaches his 81^st birthday.

Dennis Smith from Abergele, will be joined at the Conwy Half Marathon by his “Wing Woman” Ilona Kurta on October 16^th as they join forces to raise vital funds for our hospices.

Dennis started jogging more back in 2022 after his wife, Barbra passed away following a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Since then Dennis has been running regularly with informal groups in Menai Bridge, Abergele and recently completed his 400^th Park Run 5km event at Penrhyn Castle.

Dennis and Ilona are training for the Conwy Half Marathon and will donate their fundraising total on our Quality Moments Matter weekend

Waterproof

He said: “I’ll be running with my friend and wing woman as I call her, Ilona as usual.

“The running helps keep me going and this will be the third time in the Conwy Half.

“We had some poor weather last year, but skin is waterproof and I don’t mind.

“It’s the wind that’s the killer, especially around the Great Orme.”

Quality Moments

His fundraising efforts will fall under our match-funding campaign Quality Moments Matter which happens on the same weekend.

It is a 36hr event which aims to raise £400,000 which will help us meet the clinical care needs of life threatened children and provide extra quality activities such as days out and therapeutic play.

Every donation made over the 17^th & 18^th November will be doubled by a match-funding pot put in place by generous local businesses and individuals making one donation have twice the impact. 

As part of his training Dennis has been tackling an 874 mile Lands End to John o’ Groats virtual run with two friends. This involves tracking the miles ran on home turf in a special app and Dennis hopes to time it so that by the time he gets to the finish line in the Conwy Half he will have hit the incredible distance.