Tom Vosper is looking forward to visiting The Memorial Stadium for his Run the Cities challenge for Prostate Cancer UK in September.
It is part of a massive challenge to run ten kilometers in all 55 cities, starting in Turo and going to Newcastle before ending their mammoth task in Norwich.
Tom will be running alongside his friends Alex, Ben, Jon, Nathan and Sam, all to raise money to fund research against prostate cancer, helping those affected by the disease.
The charity that means a lot to Tom after a bereavement in his family. "Sadly, I lost my dad in 2017 to cancer," said Tom. "All of us in the group have been directly affected by cancer.
"I know one of the other lads from Norwich has lost his dad. So, we’ve all wanted to do something big, and I thought this was quite big to raise a few eyebrows."
He was not planning on the campaign gaining so much traction from the people that he knew but insists that all of them running together will only help.
"I came up with the idea, and I spoke to my friend, Ben, who lives in Sweden, and he was pretty keen," said Tom. "We both recently signed up for a marathon, and we were feeling quite good about ourselves, our first marathon.
"His brother wanted to get involved, one of his mates wanted to get involved, and two of my mates got involved. It’s become this group of six when initially it wasn’t the plan.
"I think it should help pull us through, having the six of us all in the same bracket of running ability as well. I think it helps none of us have done anything like this before. We all know what the main aim is."
Another unique aspect that has meaning behind the challenge is that they will attempt to start and end each run at a football stadium. Tom and his father shared their love of football and had some of their best memories together watching their favorite team.
"My love for football definitely came through him," he said. "He brought me up to be a Torquay United fan in Norwich. He would always encourage me to go to the games with him and play on a Sunday morning, he would always be there watching.
"He certainly brought me up to absolutely adore football and also appreciate the smaller things.
"Just travelling to an away game, driving for two hours, seeing your team lose and then driving back. It was still one of the best kinds of Saturdays you could wish for. I think a lot of people will relate to that."
Tom's dad wanted to go to every football stadium in the country, so he wants to get to as many as possible. The Memorial Stadium will be a new one on his list and he cannot wait to visit.
"I want to tick off as many grounds as possible, and Bristol Rovers is one that I haven’t been to," said Tom. "It always looks brilliant. A lot of Torquay fans talk about a 2-1 win we had against Bristol Rovers when they took our manager [Paul Buckle] back in 2011.
"I remember watching a couple of seasons ago when you needed to win 7-0 on the final day to get promoted, and you did it. I remember watching the goals go in for that and thinking that looks absolutely brilliant."
"Wanting to be able to go to the away games with my dad, going to these grounds in his memory is certainly one of the main inspirations for it.
"We’ve all got family or friends that are going through or have been through something similar, so for all of us it’s really close to our hearts."
Bringing football into the heart of his campaign, Ben hopes that he can reach far and wide to raise awareness for the charity.
"The aim was to really try and do something with football clubs and in the community of these cities," he said. "To try and get as many people involved. it’s also such a good way to raise awareness of the charity."
