Yahoo Finance Charity runner raising money for veterans robbed at knifepoint
An NHS worker running 1,200 miles for a veterans charity has been mugged at knifepoint midway through his fundraising challenge.
Phil Hammond, a medical porter from Leeds, was stopped by a man as he ran along the canal in a Staffordshire village on Monday evening, BBC News reported. Hammond was forced to hand over £40 when the man pulled out a knife, before fleeing the scene.
Hammond is currently undertaking a mammoth challenge, running from his home city of Leeds to Land’s End and back again via Carlisle in just 37 days. His original idea of a straightforward Land’s End to John O’Groats run was cancelled due to the pandemic last year, so he decided to ‘do something different and go a little further and hopefully raise more,’ according to his fundraising page.
Hammond is raising money for The Veterans Charity, a Devon-based organisation that provides essential items for ex-servicemen and women. So far he has raised more than £12,000 for the charity, well over his initial target of £2,400.
Danny Greeno, CEO of The Veterans Charity, told Runner’s World UK that the organisation is keeping close tabs on Hammond’s wellbeing. The charity is operating a buddy check text system to ensure he safely arrives at each new accommodation, while Greeno is speaking to him 2-3 times a day, he said.
Greeno also said Phil reported the incident to Staffordshire Police who are reportedly taking it very seriously. ‘We sincerely hope the culprit is apprehended to prevent something so awful happening again to someone else,’ he said.
But the incident had not dimmed Hammond’s enthusiasm for the challenge, he said. ‘Typically of Phil, he is far more concerned about the blisters that he has very unusually picked up,’ he said. ‘He is extremely focussed on helping others through this extraordinary challenge and although shaken by the incident, he was determined to get back onto the route as quickly as possible.’
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