Rugby players to run 80 miles between stadiums for charity

Ed Slater retired after his motor neurone disease diagnosis in 2022

A group of former rugby players will be running almost 80 miles in 24 hours to raise money for charities close to their hearts.

On Friday, they will run from Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester to Franklin's Gardens in Northampton to raise awareness and funds for the club's charitable foundation, 4Ed.

The charity was set up after ex-Gloucester player Ed Slater was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2022.

They will also be raising money for My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and 40Tude for Scottish rugby players Doddie Weir OBE and Tom Smith.

The team is composed of ex Northampton Saints players, Budge Pountney, Allan Bateman, Jon Phillips, Mark Soden, Brett Sturgess, and Phil Pask.

Gloucester coach, Carl Hogg, will lead the support.

They will run three marathons back-to-back, one for each charity, or 78.6 miles (126.5km) within 24 hours.

Slater played more than 130 times for Leicester Tigers from 2010 until 2017, the year he joined the Cherry and Whites.

Following his MND diagnosis - a condition that affects the brain and nerves - in 2022, Slater retired from the sport, with the 4Ed foundation set up shortly after.

Doddie Weir died five years after setting up his MND foundation

Weir, who earned 61 caps for Scotland and represented the British and Irish Lions in 1997, faced his biggest challenge when he was diagnosed with MND.

In 2017, he set up the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for the disease.

He died in November 2022.

Smith is regarded as one of the best looseheads in modern rugby. He played 174 matches for Northampton Saints after making his debut in September 2001.

In 2019, he was diagnosed with stage four cancer, with tumours in his colon, brain and liver.

In April 2022, he died, aged 50.

The team will leave Kingsholm Stadium at 10.00 BST on Friday, and will run non-stop with the match ball until they arrive at Franklin's Gardens in time for Saturday's kick-off.

The match will see Northampton and Gloucester go head-to-head in one of the penultimate games of the Gallagher Premiership.

Pountney, who played at international level with Weir and Smith, said: "We’re under no illusions as to how difficult this challenge will be, but we’re all determined to do our best for three very worthy charities, in memory of Doddie and Tom, and in support of Ed.

“Doddie and Tom were two legends of our game and their deaths in 2022 from these devastating diseases shocked everyone in our closely-knit rugby fraternity,” he added.

"It shows how vulnerable we all are, and that includes top athletes who have played sport at the highest level."