Paris Marathon 2026

Paris Marathon 2026 - J Dunbar

On 12 April 2026, I completed the Paris Marathon in 3:43:12, raising £4,185 for Penguins Against Cancer (PAC).When I signed up a year ago, I had never raced any distance. After helping my girlfriend, Imogen, train for a half marathon, I caught the running bug and used the rugby off-season and an injury layoff to build towards my first marathon. In October, 6 months out from Paris, I completed the Royal Parks Half Marathon in 1:38:58, raising £545 for Mind.

When I registered for the Paris Marathon, I hadn’t decided which charity to fundraise for. That changed in August 2025, when my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. It came as a huge shock to our family as she has always lived a healthy lifestyle. She faced investigations, surgery, radiotherapy and now ongoing hormone treatment, with incredible resilience, all whilst juggling work, caring for her parents, and looking after our family.

Thankfully, her cancer was detected early, highlighting just how important early diagnosis and effective screening are. Because of her long-standing relationship with BreastCancerNow, through her work, she was able to work with them to identify a research project where the money could make a tangible difference.

PAC very generously pledged to increase the funds raised by my efforts, to a total of £10,000. This has been allocated to support research at the University of York, led by Dr Jihong Zhu, developing an AI-enabled robotic assistant (“MammoBot”) to help people with limited mobility or upper body strength position themselves safely and comfortably during mammograms. The aim is to make breast screening more accessible, improve early diagnosis, and reduce health inequalities by ensuring more people can benefit from life-saving screening. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who donated and to PAC for matching the fundraising.

Knowing that the money is supporting innovative research with the potential to improve breast cancer screening for thousands of people makes every mile worthwhile, and it definitely helped me as I took on the cobblestones of Paris!