MARATHON runner Andy Sears is determined to help the Brighter Futures radiotherapy appeal cross the finishing line by the end of the year.

The butcher from Highworth has already run the equivalent of four marathons for the appeal and is now limbering up for the Abingdon 26-miler on October 21.

He has been supporting the campaign to raise £2.9m since 2016 when he lost his father Bob to oesophageal cancer.

The condition claimed him so quickly he never even got the chance to undergo radiotherapy at Oxford, but Andy said the journey would have been too much for him anyway.

Bob, also a butcher, used to have a shop in Sheep Street in the 1980s and that was where Andy learned the basics of his trade.

Even after retirement he would help out at his son’s shop in the High Street. “He was very independent,” said Andy. “He lived round the corner from me and if ever I needed anything or any advice, he was always there.”

It was over Christmas that Andy noticed something was wrong. “He sort of lost his appetite and he was finding it hard to eat.” A visit to the doctor followed and a few weeks later he was told the diagnosis. He had treatment on his stomach at Great Western Hospital, but the disease took him less than six weeks later.

He had moved in with Andy and his family who looked after him until his final hours when they were supported by a nurse from Macmillan.

Radiotherapy at Oxford had not been an option. “To be honest he would not have made the journey. It was hard enough getting him to the GWH.”

That year was the first time Andy, a veteran of a dozen marathons, decided to use his place in the London Marathon to raise money for the radiotherapy appeal.

An added impetus to his efforts came when long term employee and friend Tina Greening died from pancreatic cancer a year later.

She had only told a few people her condition was terminal but Andy said: “You knew what was coming.”

He wasn’t sure about entering the Abingdon Marathon. “I hummed and haahed about it,” he said. “I struggled with the training this summer because it was so hot.”

He was worried he might flunk the race, but as the abnormally warm weather faded he decided to go for it.

“Because I work in the shop I hear a lot of stories about people having to travel to Oxford for a 10-minute appointment. It is a whole day out of their lives. It must be so hard for people. They have got to put up with it while they are suffering and they don’t know what the outcome will be. If we can just help get one close to home it will be an improvement.

“Hopefully none of my family will ever have to use it but you never know what is down the line.”

He added: “The appeal has brought people together. Swindon has got right behind it and it’s fantastic. At the same time we should not have to be doing this sort of stuff.”

Launched in 2015 the appeal has been supported by hundreds of fundraisers over the past three years. It reached the £2.5m milestone two months ago and hopes are high that it will reach its target by Christmas.