From The Evening Gazette, 26/08/09.

Outcome from the gazette stuff.

Linthorpe banjo dad set for Great North Strum

A MIDDLESBROUGH dad is fine-tuning his fitness regime for this year’s Great North Run - but there’ll be a notable difference between him and other participants.


Mark Davies, 38, will entertain other runners during the half marathon on September 20, by playing the banjo en route.

He hopes the crackpot idea, “part of my midlife crisis”, will make cash for the Butterwick Hospice.

Raising money for the hospice on Middlefield Road, Stockton, has been on Mark’s agenda since November 2006, when he lost mum Mary to cancer aged 73.

Mark, who works with unemployed people with health problems, said: “I’m helping out the Butterwick because they treated my mum and they need people to raise money so they can carry on caring.

“I’ve done other runs, like the Tees Pride 10K to raise money, and did plan to run this one, but had a problem with my knee.

“I was regularly running about eight miles but then in March I just felt something go in my knee. I’ve rested it, but it’s still not 100% for running.”

Keen jogger Mark, of Orchard Road, Linthorpe, didn’t want injury to rule him out of the money-raising opportunity, so he plucked up the idea of taking his banjo with him.


He said: “I was disappointed when I realised I couldn’t run in the race, mostly because it would mean letting people down who had sponsored me.

“But I realised I could still do the race and raise some money, I just needed something to go with it.”

And although he’s no George Formby, Mark is hoping picking and strumming modern pop songs on the five-string instrument will encourage other runners.

“I’ve not been playing very long - I tend to get an instrument every Christmas, and last year it was the banjo.

“I’ve played in public, and it always goes down well - especially modern stuff like S Club 7 and The Jam,” he said.

Cheering him on in Newcastle will be wife Louise, 37, a school manager, and children Grace, six, and two-year-old Harry.

And while Mark is confident he can walk the 13.1 miles in the North’s biggest road race, now he has to work on his repertoire.

“I’ll be playing a 50-year-old junior banjo a friend lent me - I just hope I can learn enough tunes to last me out!”

And as far as Mark is concerned, this is just the beginning.

“Why stop at the Great North Run? There are countless places and events I could take part in,” he said.