Leamington father and daughter to take on London Marathon

A father and daughter team from Leamington will be taking on the London Marathon this weekend.

Mike Mulholland (53) and his daughter, Lily (25), will be teaming up to run the iconic marathon, to raise money to help find a cure for Parkinson’s - the disease which took his father’s life six years ago.

Originally planning to run a half-marathon for Parkinson’s, this Leamington dream-team had to change training plans when a clash with a friend’s postponed wedding caused them to switch to the London Marathon.

For Mike, this will be his fourth marathon attempt for the charity. For daughter Lily, not only will it be her first but she’d never even tried running until lockdown last year.

Forced to return early from a ski season when Covid struck, she was persuaded to go running by her dad to stay fit and pass the time during lockdown. But a marathon was the furthest thing from her mind,

“Dad gave me the half marathon entry as a birthday ‘present’ in February and that was scary enough," she said.

"When we had to cancel that to be honest I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can’t believe I’m actually now going to be running the London Marathon in just a few days.

"I’m nervous of course but I’ll be thinking of Grandpa every step of the way. Living every day with Parkinson’s was like a marathon for him, and still is for those suffering with it.”

Both Mike and Lily have been training hard in recent months and have clocked up more than 1,000 miles between them.

For Lily especially it’s been tough fitting it around the demands of a new job and a move to London.

On running a marathon with his daughter, Mike said: “Any father of daughters will know they can give you a bit of grief in day to day life.

"Well, that’s nothing compared to training for a marathon with them.

"Seriously though, I’m so proud of her for stepping up to the plate.

"Dad would be so proud of his first grandchild – I’m sure there we’ll both have ‘a moment’ on the start line as we think of him and what it means to each of us to run in his memory.”

To donate go to: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/TheMulhollands