BBC News Reader Collapsed in Front of the Finish

Blog 2

17 April 2011 Last updated at 16:12 GMT
London marathon: Thousands join record-breaking elite
Thousands of runners were raising money for charity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13107523

Blog 2

Summary

The London marathon was joined by thousands, among those runners was the BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth. She ran to raise money for a cancer charity and was determined to finish. This attempt almost failed when she collapsed 2,5 miles before the finish. However after she had received care from the paramedics she continued her race and crossed the finish. With this marathon she raised £12,000. Apart from Raworth there were several other known runners taking part like the Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell, former Manchester United footballer Dwight Yorke, and models Agyness Deyn, Nell McAndrew and Elen Rivas. The Olympic rowing champion James Cracknel was raising money for brain injury charity Headway.

Opinion

Running is one of the cheapest sports to exercise; all you need is a pair of good running shoes. People who start running often set themselves a goal; sometimes this goal is the London Marathon. You have to be very well trained to run this race, but even then there is always s the risk of collapsing.

It makes me wonder if all this fund raising for a good cause yields as much as we think. Of course the spotlights are on, the name of the organization is in the news and an amount of coins will be handed over to the fund. It remains an open question how much damage is done by showing the collapse of Raworth. Doesn’t is set a bad example, if you read the article it is almost as if she is hero. Are people who molest their body’s heroes? Is it necessary to show a whole nation the breakdown of someone?

However the London marathon is a great happening, but from the point view of health education it might be better to make an agreement about what one wants to show the entire country.