On what felt like the hottest day of the year, a man running in a curly wig holding a bucket caught the public’s attention in Moses Gate Park. Nick Lever, 46, ran a 42-lap marathon around Crompton Lodges in fancy dress on Sunday. In his bucket, he collected donations for Victim Support, a charity that helps victims or witnesses of crime , whether it has been reported to police or not.
He did it for friend Kate Sutcliffe, landlady of Little Lever’s Queen Anne pub. Only in May, her brother, Neil Sutcliffe, had been killed in Portugal . The family paid beautiful tributes to Neil, a Bolton School old boy, in The Bolton News.
Nick said: “With all the knife crime that’s about, it’s quite a sensitive subject for everybody. “People want to donate. Knife crime is on the rise and Victim Support is what you don’t hear about when people lose somebody.
” Nick Lever (in curly wig) and a supporter (Image: Nick Lever) When he heard that his friends would do a Sunday Funday event in Queen Anne’s pub to help the charity, he wanted to join in. Nick said: “I came up with the idea of doing a marathon for them in the local community so people could get involved. “We decided to do it around Crompton Lodges.
We measured both lakes and they came to one kilometre.” Since a marathon is 26 miles, he would need to do quite a few laps. Nick said: “We figured out that I needed try run around both lakes 42 times to do a marathon.
” He added a fun idea to encourage participation. Ni.