Two grandchildren of Ruth Saunders, who walked a marathon in Newbury in 2020 for Thames Valley Air Ambulance when she was 104, are running the Paris Marathon in her memory

Two grandchildren of Ruth Saunders will be running the Paris Marathon together in her memory while raising money for a Newbury community centre.

Ruth, who was Newbury’s oldest resident at 107 when she died a year ago, won the hearts of the district when she walked a marathon during lockdown to raise money for charity.

Following in her footsteps, her youngest granddaughter Alison, 43, and her oldest grandson Chris, 42, will be running 26.2 miles through the French capital on April 13 and raising money for the Fair Close Centre in the process.

Alison said: “Her legacy of strength and compassion will guide me through each of the 26.1 miles of my challenge, as I strive to raise funds for the Fair Close Centre.

“The centre means a great deal to my family. It is a place of comfort, support and community that meant the world to Ruth”.

Alison moved to France in 2012.

She now works at an international business school and lives in Fontainebleau, a small town south east of Paris, with her family.

Chris lives in the UK and works in IT.

Alison described Chris as a “hard core sports guy” while she herself is a “back of the pack plodder” and, although she has completed the Paris Marathon before and is looking forward to taking it on again, she is dreading the two steep hills that are the most challenging part of it.

The location of the French capital for the run has a particular emotional resonance for Alison as it reminds her of when her grandmother visited her in France for a very special occasion.

She said: “It is also quite special because Nan came to visit me along with the family for her 100th birthday.

“At the time I was a tour guide in Paris, so the idea was to take her on a tour of Paris to see the sights.

“This happened to be the year that Paris had the truly hideous floods, so when we went to the Eiffel Tower it was actually closed.

“The goal was to get to the summit and have a glass of Champagne, but because the weather was so bad we didn’t actually manage to get our glass of Champagne, much to Nan’s upset.”

Despite the weather, Alison still managed to take Ruth around many of the Parisian tourist hotspots, and these fond memories will be at the forefront of her mind when she’s running through the capital’s streets come April.

Alison also had a direct hand in Ruth’s lockdown marathon walk, a feat that brought her to prominence in the Newbury area and nationwide, being appointed an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honours.

When she embarked upon the fundraising challenge in 2020, Ruth initially planned to do 104 laps around the streets near her home in Clay Hill Crescent to match her age at the time.

However, Alison convinced her grandmother to add a few more laps on to her total in order to make the total distance up to a full marathon. In doing so, Alison agreed to run a marathon herself, and completed two in 2021.

After Ruth died, Alison wanted to continue on her spirit of fundraising and so she is supporting Ruth’s Challenge, a fundraising project set up in Ruth’s memory that is raising money for the Fair Close Centre.

The Fair Close Centre in Newtown Road provides services and outreach programmes for older residents in West Berkshire and North Hampshire.

Ruth was a regular visitor to the centre, visiting the hairdressing salon on a weekly basis.

To access the Ruth’s Challenge and Memorial fundraiser, visit https://rebrand.ly/e19e8e on Greenham Trust’s The Good Exchange website.