Return to race where Bansley man proposed

A romantic Barnsley athlete is returning to the Virgin Money London Marathon for a third time having proposed to his two-time cancer surviving wife at the finishing line of the 2015 race.

Paul ‘Kippy’ Kippax, 47, returns to the race a married man after getting down on one knee at the finish line of the iconic marathon to ask his now wife Judith to marry him.

The couple, who live in Elsecar, had both just completed the 26.2miles for Cancer Research UK, a charity close to their heart following Judith’s own battle with breast cancer.

Now Kippy and Judith will return to the marathon, one of the UK’s biggest sporting challenges, on Sunday April 22 at the same time as raising money for the charity and trying to pass his own £10,000 fundraising total.

Kippy said: “When we took part in the London Marathon in 2015 Judith was in the middle of treatment for breast cancer for the second time, having been first diagnosed in 1992. We had signed up in November the previous year without any knowledge of what was about to happen, but that February we had more than just a running challenge to contend with. Despite two operations Judith powered through the marathon with a time of four hours 10 minutes and I was so incredibly proud of what she had achieved not just in that race, but facing her whole diagnosis.” Visit www.twitter.com/KippyRunsLondon to follow Kippy’s race.