Conquering mountains and marathons in memory of Ali

A WOMAN who lost her brother to a heart condition said she felt very emotional as she completed a charity challenge in his memory in their hometown on Sunday.

Lauren Bilton, 40, who now lives in Caversham Heights but grew up in Henley, finished the challenge with childhood friend Hannah Walker, 41.

Together they have raised almost £8,000 for Heart Research UK in memory of Mrs Bilton’s brother, Alistair.

The challenge saw the women climb ten summits in Snowdonia, north Wales, in under ten hours, before running a combined marathon a day for ten days straight.

On Sunday, Mrs Bilton and Ms Walker, both nursing injuries, were cheered on by family and friends as they arrived at the Flower Pot Pub in Aston on the eleventh and final day of their challenge.

Mrs Bilton said she felt both emotional and relieved to finish the challenge in Henley.

She said: “It’s been a lovely adventure, but it’s been really emotional today.

“We hadn’t run together before today. We did the mountains together and then we have run separately because Hannah is in Windsor and I’m in Caversham.

“So, we were really keen to run together and to do it in Henley in the end, because it’s where we both grew up, and it’s where Ali was from, and it has been really emotional.

“As we got to the river our kids started to arrive and my husband was there and there were groups of people cheering, so it was really nice to finish like that.”

The challenge was conceived in memory of Alistair “Ali” Paines, who grew up in Henley and worked for the software company Signals in Market Place for more than 20 years.

Mr Paines died suddenly at home five years ago from severe coronary artery atherosclerosis, which causes the arteries to narrow. He was 41.

Among those present to cheer the women on was Laura Neiland, Ali’s fiancée, and Saskia, five, his daughter, who was yet to be born when he died.

Saskia brought a sign that read: “Thank you for doing this for my daddy”.

Also present was Mrs Bilton’s husband, Luke, his son Louie, and her three children, Emily , 14, Sophie, 12, and Miles, four, and Mrs Walker’s children, Evie and Austin.

Joe Paines, Ali’s brother, and his son, Louis, also joined the women to mark their achievement.

They spent the afternoon celebrating with lunch at the pub.

Mrs Bilton said her brother was not far from her thoughts when the challenge pushed her to her limits.

She said: “We’ve both run at our limits, I couldn’t have done any more. We’re old, we’re in our forties now and we’ve got kids who are teenagers, and I think we’re both really up for trying to prove to ourselves that doesn’t matter.

“I think we’ve both been feeling that this is nothing in comparison to the loss we’ve gone through.

“So when it’s been hard I just think, if Ali could have gone for one run he would have taken that opportunity.

“Obviously, Saskia has grown up without her dad. The challenge itself is nothing in comparison to the reason why we are doing it.”

The women met as students at Sacred Heart Primary School in Grey’s Hill and have been friends ever since.

Ms Walker, who lives in Windsor, said the idea to complete a challenge in Ali’s memory came to her at Mrs Bilton’s wedding in January of last year.

She said: “Ali passed away five years ago this January, so it was four years later when she got married.

“It was the most beautiful wedding, I had a massive cry before I went, but there were a lot of tears because there was obviously just a big gap.

“I felt like I couldn’t just sit there with that void. I felt like we needed to go out there and do something positive in such a horrible situation.

“I said to Lauren that I really wanted to do something, and she said, ‘yep, I’m in’. So that’s how it all evolved.”

On Saturday, August 9, the pair took on the 10 summits of Carneddau Ridge.

They were joined by Ms Walker’s cousin, Ben Massey, and his partner, and they completed the climb in eight hours and 10 minutes.

Once finished, they walked another two hours and 15 minutes to descend the mountain range.

Ms Walker said: “It’s just stunning there, it’s beautiful, and at the start it was all very exciting, and now we’re just broken.

“It was really windy, but it was beautiful views on the way up. When we hit summit seven the clouds came down, it was a bit rainy, then we dropped back down below the clouds for summits eight, nine and 10.

“It was actually really nice, because Lauren has never climbed a mountain before, so she got to see the beautiful mountainscape of Snowdonia.

“We are both quite scared of heights, which is why we did the mountains, but on the way down, I was like, could we just hurl ourselves off this mountain? Like, what is the quickest way to the bottom?

“I think the highest one was 1,064m. By the end we had lost all of our fear of heights because we were just like, ‘get me off this mountain’.

“I think we definitely conquered our fear of heights on those 10 summits.

“It was a long day, but it was beautiful.”

Once they returned, they only had five days to recover before starting the second part of the challenge which entailed running a combined marathon each day.

Ms Walker ran 20 miles each day and Ms Bilton completed 10km.

The women, who say they are not usually endurance runners, both overcame injuries to complete all ten days of the running challenge.

Ms Walker said: “It probably wasn’t enough time at all, we should have given ourselves a full week to recover after the mountain I think, but you live, and you learn.

“We have never done anything like it before, we’re not natural long-distance runners so we’re not endurance athletes.

“We’re quite literally two mums in our forties going ‘let’s do something really awful for charity’.

“I’ve thought about Ali so much on the runs — I’ve thought about us all growing up together.

“When I’ve been in pain and running and thinking, ‘I don’t think I can finish this’, I’ve then thought, ‘sort yourself out’.

“What I watched Lauren go through when Ali died was utterly horrific. It was awful and I couldn’t make any part of it better, so I thought ‘this is nothing, just keep bloody running’.

“It’s very bittersweet, I think that’s how it will feel for the rest of the week.”

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