Many islanders spent last weekend fundraising for charity, whether they took part in the London Marathon or ran through coloured powder on the beach in Jersey as part of Family Nursing & Home Care’s Colour Festival. But forty years ago, they also had the option of dressing up as a baby and racing through People’s Park in a pram…
Back in 1985, there were plenty of charity sporting events to choose from, whether it was running, swimming, playing darts or instruments, or something a little more inventive.
The major fundraising marathon that year was the annual Swimarathon, which took place at the end of February. Organised by the Lions Club of Jersey, it raised a record-breaking £50,729.26, earning it a mention in the Guinness Book of Records.
Reporting on it at the time, the Jersey Evening Post estimated that this total was equivalent to every person in Jersey donating £1.
There were 2,268 swimmers in 378 teams, who together swam a combined distance of over 645 miles.
Schoolchildren, States Members, the island’s media, local clubs and dedicated individuals made up the teams, including a last-minute scratch team calling itself “The Last Hope”, who stepped up to fill a gap in the proceedings on Sunday night.
On 5 May it was the Jersey Marathon, which was sponsored – somewhat incongruously – by Coca Cola. There were 330 runners, from ages 19 to 77, and the race attracted international competitors.
Runners came from America, Australia, England, Ireland, German and France. There were so many French runners that a French running magazine sent a reporter to cover the event.
Six Jersey Marathon records were broken that year, and the sun shone. The men’s race was won by Paul Kenney of Blackpool, and the women’s by local runner Helen Beard. A Jersey woman, Jenny Grey, also won the women’s veterans’ (over 35s’) race.
Many of those running raised money for charities, including for the Jersey branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Group, the Jersey Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and ActionAid’s Jersey Ethiopian appeal.
The United Ladies Dart League held a marathon of their own, a sponsored darts relay marathon. This raised £3,813 for the Jersey Hospice Care Unit.
Another set of runners, 15 women who had taken part in a “Woman’s Own Fun Run”, raised funds to donate a lamp for the treatment of new-born jaundice to the maternity hospital.
On 3 April, De La Salle College held their 25th annual round-the-island walk. In all, 298 pupils took part, but only 84 competitors finished the entire 36-mile route – a testament to the genuine challenge the walkers faced.
The first to finish, guest walker Richard Merhet, took only five hours anf forty-five minutes. Two brothers, Conor and David Murphy, finished within two minutes of each other at just under seven hours, possibly due to the stamina built up from their daily walk to and from school from Grouville. The walk raised nearly £5,000 for “Brother James Kimpton’s Boys Town” in southern India.
The Band of the Island of Jersey also raised £1,000 that month by marching the nine miles from St Clement’s Parish Hall to St Brelade’s Parish Hall, playing all the way.
Their oldest member was Harry Fleury, aged 75, who opted to play the baritone rather than a heavier instrument to save energy, but who walked the route three days beforehand to make sure he could manage it and even walked home to First Tower afterwards.
However, one of the most unexpected fundraisers took place on 30 March – a “pramathon”. This was organised by the Round Table Association, and involved participants dressed as babies being pushed around a timed assault course on People’s Park by friends similarly bedecked in fancy dress.
The Chairman of the Round Table, Michael ‘Vomiter’ Vibert, led by example, although it is reported that an unfortunate fall from his pram slowed his team’s progress.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fitness Centre Team came first, completing the course in just under six minutes; the slowest team (the Jersey Evening Post’s) took 14 minutes, 20 seconds.
As well as the races themselves, spectators could enjoy food and beer and even have a go on one of the newly-launched Sinclair C5s that were on show.
This unusual event raised £1,200 for Centrepoint, with teams also raising money for their own chosen charities.
All in all, these fundraising events raised more than £62,000 for charity in 1985.
Four decades on, islanders continue to support good causes in many different ways. Perhaps it’s time for another pramathon?…
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This story has been told as part of a series in collaboration with Jersey Heritage.
To uncover more stories like this, visit Jersey Archive or search its online catalogue HERE.