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Great North 10K: 'Big Pink Dress' runner Colin Burgin-Plews reveals marathon agony
Care home chef Colin Burgin-Plews, who runs in a big pink dress, hopes to build on his £8,000 fundraising for Breast Cancer Campaign
A bearded “beauty” is in the pink after raising more than £8,000 for the Breast Cancer Campaign.
Care home chef Colin Burgin-Plews last summer pulled a Diana Ross-style dress over his 6ft 6in frame and strapped on his running shoes to raise money after his fiancé’s friend suffered from the potentially killer disease.
Initially hoping to raise £350, the South Shields ex-forces rugby player caught the running bug, and with a London Marathon under his belt is eyeing up this year’s Morrisons Great North 10K as his next challenge.
“I’m now onto my second dress and it weighs approximately three stones,” said Colin, who married fiancé Catherine last weekend and decided to double-barrel his surname with hers. “And it’s still not the easiest thing to run in.
“I tripped over it about seven miles into the London Marathon and broke two toes, so promised my wife I wouldn’t run again until the next major thing - and that’s the Morrisons Great North 10K.”Colin plans to run the Great North Run in September as part of a two-man “beauty and the beast” team with “Big Jon” Green, an even taller, bearded Wolverhampton man who, running past in a kilt, picked the 47-year-old up, dusted him off, and made sure he completed his 26.2 mile trek through the capital in April.
And he hopes to work with his son Oliver’s school - and possibly its most famous alumni - to involve more youngsters in his “big pink” fundraising.
“My son is 16 and is now quite blasé about the whole thing, but I’ve even gotten his school, Harton Technology College, involved.
“They’ve been fantastic - and now I want to try and convince comedian Chris Ramsey, who went there, to run with me at the school in a ‘Big Pink Run’.”
Colin said that when he started out he never believed his fundraising efforts would amount to much, but now it has taken off he has high hopes for the future.
“When I started out I thought £350 would be difficult enough as I didn’t know that many people, but it’s gone absolutely crazy.
“I think a total of £20,000 could be possible before halfway through next year.”
Colin will be donning his dress - which is covered in ribbons bearing the names of his sponsors and those who have lost loved ones to cancer - for the Morrisons Great North 10K on July 5.
