A RUNNER who had planned to tackle the Bungay half-marathon in 2007 with the late Beccles man Bob Sale will be running next week's event in his memory.

A RUNNER who had planned to tackle the Bungay half-marathon in 2007 with the late Beccles man Bob Sale will be running next week's event in his memory.

Peter Lumsden, who now lives in Preston, was good friends with Mr Sale, a popular sportsman who passed away unexpectedly from a heart condition.

Throughout 2006 the friends had been intending to run the Bungay Half-Marathon together- however Bob sadly passed away in the January of 2007.

In memory of his friend, Peter will be running this year's event, which takes place on Sunday, April 18.

The pair went to school together in Beccles, at Crowfoot and then Sir John Leman, and first met when they were eight or nine.

Peter later moved away from Beccles while Bob stayed in the town, however the two remained good friends.

Despite Bob's tragic death, Peter ran the 2007 half-marathon in his memory, with a group that included Bob's son Ashley.

They won the Roger Wing Memorial Trophy that year, given for the individual or group best showing the marathon spirit in the day. They ran with Bob's nickname on the back of their shirts, “Steady Bob.”

This year, Peter is also raising funds for Preston Nightstop, a charity which organises emergency accommodation for young people who have suddenly been made homeless.

“There are a tragic number of young people across the country who are in very vulnerable circumstances and this provides very important support,” he explained. “I thought that Bob would approve of that.”

Peter is hoping to run the half-marathon in under two hours. “As you get older the little niggles take longer to recover from but I've done more training this year,” he said.

Bob was a fitter and section leader at Europack in Beccles, where he had worked for 26 years. He was also a footballer with both Barsham FC and Bartram Beccles FC. It was during a training session with Bartram that he collapsed and died and was found to have undiagnosed coronary artery atherosclerosis, a thickening and hardening of the blood vessels.

Peter said it was fitting to be running the half-marathon in his friend's memory, as he had a history of fundraising.

If you would like to sponsor Peter you can get in touch with him on Facebook, where he is listed as Peter John Lumsden.