01 October 2007

Haile Gebrselassie, who broke the world record in Saturday’s Berlin marathon in a winning time of 2hr 4min 26sec, and 200 runners in the Great North Run have smashed their aim to raise £250,000 pound for Vicky’s Water Project.

Two hundred runners in the Great North Run, the largest single group of friends and family to ever participate in the half marathon have raised more than £400,000 to bring clean running water to a stricken community in Ethiopia.

The total exceeded the £400,000 mark on the morning of the race when the Chancellor of Newcastle University, where Vicky studied, gave a cheque for £5000.

These funds will enable the project to build an extra bore hole to cope with the expected demand for water at peak times and as a result of serving an increasing population as well as enabling the project to use steel pipes instead of UPVC, which will last far longer.

Vicky’s Water Project was set up to raise funds in memory of Victoria Buchanan who was tragically killed at the age of 28 whilst bicycling to work at Chelsea Football Club in October 2006.

Vicky’s fiancé Adam Chataway, the son of former world record-breaking athlete and government minister, Sir Christopher Chataway, resolved that something positive should come from the tragedy.

While at Newcastle University, Vicky had worked for ActionAid for a month helping out on a water project to bring clean water to Dalocha in Ethiopia. ActionAid identified a similar Ethiopian project in Lera Town.

Adam, Sir Chris and the 200 runners got a special hurray as they ran from Newcastle to South Shields. Sir Chris, 76, completed the course in 1hr 39min 58sec. Sir Chris was a pacemaker for Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, and the first ever BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1954.

Just as special as the Great North Run was a meeting three weeks earlier. The Chataways and Vicky's parents, Valerie and Jack, travelled to Ethiopia where they met Haile Gebreselassie, like Sir Chris a former world record holder over 5,000 metres.

Sir Chris and Adam ran with Haile through the streets of Addis Ababa, and during that meeting Haile agreed to run for Vicky in Berlin. The Ethiopian team wore Vicky’s blue ribbon in Berlin, the symbol of Vicky’s Water Project.

See the Chataway's run with Gebreselassie

Adam Chataway explained that Vicky’s Water project is a great way to dredge something good out of a senseless accident. He said: “Vicky was taken from us in the blink of an eye but I feel very strongly that the investment you make in life is never taken away. Vicky's Water Project is a very powerful and tangible way of expressing that."

ActionAid's director Richard Miller concluded: "Haile's support for Vicky's Water Project and his world record breaking run meant so much to the Great North Run competitors, to ActionAid and to all those who will benefit from the gift of clean water in Lera Town."