Tony Tillbrooke

My dad, is one of the seventeen "Everpresent" who have run every single London Marathon. This is a testament to his determination because he has suffered many physical setbacks, including a terrible skiing accident four months before the 1989 event, which he ran with the addition of several steel screws to his leg. In 1986 he was involved in a horrific car crash and his legs appeared completely crushed to all around including the firemen attempting to rescue him. He has no memory of the event and awoke days later in hospital to an amazing yet ridiculous account of his argument his rescuers. As they approached the car with a chainsaw and the intention of amputating his legs to rush him to hospital, he awoke and in a calm stern voice told them on no account where they to remove any limb but instead to cut the car away from him. He protested so much that they agreed and amazingly his legs were fine! He will be seventy-one next month and doing the marathon is more of a challenge every year but he has been determined to continue until the Olympic year inspired in part by Whizzkids, the charity he donates marathon sponsorship to, which provides wheelchairs and sports equipment to the severely handicapped. He has never raced beyond an amateur level, competing in track-cycling in Singapore with the air force and marathons all over the world, but he would have loved to do both at a professional level, and feeling involved in the Olympics would help fulfil this lifetime ambition.