Virunga ranger among biggest individual fundraisers of 2018 London Marathon
Melanie May | 28 September 2018 | News
A ranger from Virunga National Park raised over £1 million for charity in this year’s Virgin Money London Marathon: the largest sum raised by a Charity Ballot holder.
Angèle Nzalamingi, a 26-year-old ranger, raised £126,306.18 for the Virunga Foundation, completing the Marathon in 3 hours 51 minutes and 42 seconds. The funds she raised will be put towards Virunga’s key programmes, which include ranger training.
Prior to the event, she had never left Congo, never run in an organised event and had also undertaken most of her training in work boots. She and her fellow rangers face daily danger in their work to protect the park and the wildlife. More than 175 park rangers have died while trying to protect the park from poachers and armed militia with six killed shortly before she ran this year’s Marathon. Last year, the park’s Director, Emmanuel de Merode, raised more than one million dollars by running the London Marathon, with the money going to help support the families of fallen rangers.
Nzalamingi said:
“I’m really happy to have been able to participate in the Marathon and to have represented Virunga. I’m also happy knowing that I’ve been a part of history and that the money I helped raise will go to benefit the park and the people around the park.
“I would love to do it again. It was my first competition and I didn’t know what to expect. But now I know how to compete in a marathon so I would love to get the opportunity to do even better than the first time.”
In addition, London Marathon Events have announced that the individual who raised the most for a charity with a Silver Bond place was Perry Littleboy, who raised £25,000 for Motivation, which designs and provides wheelchairs for people living in developing countries.
The charity with a Golden Bond place which raised the most amount of money at the 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon was Myeloma UK. The five participants running for this charity raised a total of £47,214.92.
Nzalamingi, Littleboy, and Myeloma UK will each receive a commemorative award from London Marathon Events.
The overall total raised for charity by the 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon was £63.7 million.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.