Archie meets the Marathon challenge

London Marathon Day is a momentous day in the UK calendar, when over 56,000 take to the streets of the nation’s capital to complete the iconic 26.2 mile course, with more than 2,000 charities benefiting from the runner’s life-changing fundraising efforts every year.

One of those runners this year is Archie (20). He participates in our Hampshire Super 1s project and is just the second Lord’s Taverners programme participant to ever take on a full Marathon in aid of our work – he follows in the footsteps of Somerset Super 1s’ Connor Hyde in 2025.

Archie is the younger of twins born almost 10 weeks prematurely. Life began in incubators with heart murmurs, jaundice, tube feeding and respiratory problems.

Slow to reach his developmental milestones, Archie was also diagnosed asthmatic and found to have an extremely rare and unresearched duplicate chromosome consisting of several mild to moderate conditions and sensory issues (something he shares with his twin sister and brother).

His parents have always been proactive in ensuring Archie and his siblings were as active as possible while growing up, trying a number of different activities with mixed success.

Learning how to deal with the everyday challenges Archie’s diagnosis has brought him took him a while to adjust to. He also avoided sports and more strenuous physical activity from the age of four after experiencing a major asthma attack while running. It wasn’t until after covid where things started to turn around.

Following a cautious 18 months spent shielding during Covid, his parents decided it was causing more harm than good, so Archie joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Cadet Corps (RNVCC) – Archie’s Dad was in the Navy and he is keen to follow in his footsteps - and a short time afterwards he started taking part in our Super 1s programme at the Portchester hub in Hampshire after finding out about it through school in 2022.

Archie has benefited enormously from finding these two communities, they’re places where he feels like he belongs. The inclusive nature of the groups and activity, the support, encouragement and discipline they bring, has really improved Archie’s ability to focus.

Cricket also happens to be the one activity that he can share with his brother and sister. It’s proved to be hugely beneficial for Archie’s wellbeing and the immediate family. Super 1s is ideal for Archie as its just 90 mins per week, the nature of the game means he always has something to focus on and participating has helped him gain the confidence to take on more exercise in a controlled way.

His mum Heidi, adds: “Physical activity, socialising and meeting people is the best medicine for kids. At Super 1s, the Coaches treat Archie as normal, they aren’t patronised and being part of it has hugely boosted his confidence. The Coaches are super welcoming and massively enrich kids with a wide range of disabilities, and weekly sessions have a family feel. The kids all tolerate and encourage each other, relax and get on.”

Since Covid, joining Super 1s and the cadets, Archie has been on something of a charitable and volunteering mission.

His engagement with the RNVCC led to him starting his Duke of Edinburgh Awards journey, with Super 1s growing his confidence to try new things.

In the past three years he has completed his Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards, achieved Cadet and Field Gunner of the Year, is now a brown belt in Karate, volunteers as a Staff Member at a VCC Unit and has commenced his second year on a Uniformed Services course at South Downs College as well as continuing with cricket and other activities. This is just scratching the surface, and a quick google search reveals a further list of his special recent achievements.

His mum continues: “Everything seems to have aligned in the past 12-18 months. He has excellent role models in all he does right now. It’s such a battle to get help for children living with what Archie, his brother and sister do, but he’s thriving at the moment and has developed a lot since lockdown. The routine and discipline has really allowed him to focus.”

Having recently completed his Gold Expedition, managing to walk 20km per day, Archie was excited to get the opportunity to participate in the London Marathon. This is a huge challenge and seeing him confront his conditions and sensory needs. It’s actually this challenge which has seen Archie try running continuously again for the first time since he was four!

The cadet’s motto is ‘Meet the Challenge’ – to say Archie’s Marathon effort is meeting the challenge would be an understatement…