Moved by the plight of the people in Palestine, Mahb Rahman will put both running feet firmly forward to help with humanitarian aid in Gaza.
In his first-ever London Marathon, Mahb, 52, will undertake the gruelling 26.2 miles on Sunday.
Longney-based Mahb, a fertility national sales manager, who runs for Frampton Running Club, said: “I have been running for some time and mostly run around the beautiful Stroud hills and the Severn Valley. I was inspired by my wife Hena, who had run the marathon two years ago, so I entered and managed to secure a ballot place.
As Mahb put the road miles in, the war on the stricken people of Palestine started – and this acted as a catalyst for his charity crusade: “As I started my training, the war intensified. I reached out to Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie to request a question around a ceasefire and ensuring humanitarian support reaching Palestinians. I was trying to raise awareness of the use of banned substances like white phosphorus.
“The timing was wrong and people were generally still trusting the skewed news we were being fed, and I received standard responses. People I talked to were only interested in defending Israeli sovereignty, and safety. As a Muslim, people were interested in my condemnation of Hamas, rather than believing people were being killed like ‘human animals’ as described by Israeli sources. Certainly at that time people were convinced that Israel were a benign occupier bringing civilisation to the Palestinian barbarians.”
Emotional ties have certainly impacted, ahead of his journey to the start line on Sunday. Mahb added: “What made the situation even more emotionally charged for me, is that we have family friends who are Palestinians, displaced from their homelands. I work with Palestinian immigrants who are high level medical consultants, far removed from frothing at the mouth Palestinians, hell bent on removing Israeli people from occupied Palestine, as we are led to believe they all are.”
Mahb has been overwhelmed with the support he has received and is now calling for one more fundraising push: “Since I started running and raising funds, the situation in Gaza has become so bad and the Israeli propaganda so rampant, and yet so obvious.
“Ramadhan is a time of giving of generosity and of goodwill. It’s a time of reflection as well as the physical fasting topped off with daily family focused meals. Families are being destroyed, the slaughter of children the levelling of Gaza and targeting of people collecting aid to feed their families, is far removed from what Ramadhan should be.
“All this disparity between what should be and what is, is my motivator during training, especially when I am on a late night training run, after work in the dark, cold and rain.
“It’s hard for me to run a mile on my own and having a need to talk to people when out running however I have been knocking out 10s of miles on my own.
“I have my running friends who support me on my longer training runs in the weekends when they join me. I have been so desperate for companionship on the longer solo runs that I have accosted random other runners and talked them into running with me! Many have been very generous with their time and company and one lovely lady even sponsored me at the end of our run together in Wales.”
Support Mahb’s marathon for Gaza by clicking the link HERE
