Irishman takes on major run in aid of ill Roscommon boys and mental health charity

Ben Banaghan, who lives in London, is running from John O’Groats to Land’s End in just three weeks – a distance equal to two marathons a day.

Ben began the run on September 5, with the aim of raising £250,000 for Mental Health UK and £250,000 for Join Our Boys Trust, a charity set up Paula and Padraic Naughton, whose 3 children were diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).

Sadly, their son Archie passed away at 16 years old in July. His dying wish is to find a cure for DMD for his brothers George and Isaac (12).

All three boys were diagnosed with DMD in 2012, when Archie was 6 and the twins were 2 years old.

To date, Ben’s fundraiser has seen money pouring in from almost 500 generous donors, with £13.8K being raised for the two charities.

The Join Our Boys Trust showed their support for the Irishman on Twitter this morning, writing: “Pls RT Archie's dying wish was that his twin brothers do not have to endure the same horrific death he did Archie was the Bravest of the brave; he did not deserve all he endured. Pls help us to help Ben Run Britain.”

Paula and Padraic recently paid tribute to their late son Archie online as they called on the public to update their profile photos with something orange in his honour.

“In 2014 The Trust launched Wear Orange Day to raise awareness of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and raise funds to try and find a treatment,” they wrote.

“If you feel able to, please post an orange image (it can be ANYTHING); You might even temporarily change your profile image!

“We really want to keep his remarkable legacy alive and save the lives of his beautiful brothers George and Isaac and everyone else cursed with this catastrophic disease.

“Archie's only concern as he was dying was that his beautiful brothers do not suffer like he did. He begged us to keep fighting for a treatment/cure for everyone dying of Duchenne. As parents we failed him miserably; we cannot fail George & Isaac.”

Those who wish to donate to the Ben Running Britain fundraiser can do so here.