Shelly & David set new course records at the Great North Run

Get Kids Going's top wheelchair athletes, David Weir and Shelly Woods set new British and course records to win the Great North Run wheelchair races on the 18th September.


David Weir, who last won the Great North Run in 2003, achieved an impressive 42 minutes 35 seconds over the 13.1 mile course to beat David Holding's previous record of 44.25.

Get Kids Going's Tushar Patel was second, almost two minutes back, with German Ralph Brunner third.

Our very own Shelly Woods also finished in the record time of 50 minutes 7 seconds, beating our Vice President Dame Tanni Grey Thompson's record of 52.17.

Tanni came 5th in the race.

Shelly beat Francesca Porcellato by 39 seconds to win the event.


Shelly raced much of the course with coach Jason Gill, and had finished second to Francesca in the London Marathon and also at the Great Manchester Run but we wish her the best of luck as she is now set to race in the Berlin Marathon on the 25th September.

We'd like to send congratulations from everyone at Get Kids Going! to David and Shelley who were also interviewed live on BBC TV by Sue Barker.

Tushar Patel, came 2nd. Brian Alldis also did extremely well and came fifth in the senior men's race with a time of 46.10 minutes

We'd like to offer our congratulations to our entire wheelchair team and thanks to all the runners who took part in the race for us. If you would like to enter the 2009 Great North Run please visit our website and apply online.

Amazing photos from our brave Parachute jumpers

Over 30,000 people make their first parachute jump each year, but over ten times that amount think about doing one. But when you see the excitement on the faces of some of our skydivers, hopefully you will be tempted to join them.


Jenny Robbins and Jane Finlay called themselves our “Golden Oldies” and show that you’re never too old to make the plunge:

Jane said: “The jump was fantastic! An amazing experience. I am delighted to have done it for Get Kids Going - a great charity - and our fundraising might get someone to the 2012 Olympics!”

Jane and Jenny have raised an amazing £3,000 from their tandem Parachute jumps which they completed at the Netheravon Parachute centre near Salisbury.

Jenny who works at the Cranmore Prep school in Leatherhead sent round a picture of the skydive after the event to prove she had done it and the money came pouring in.

Meanwhile Derek Barrett, Marco Giudice and Jonathon Silva decided to do solo parachute jumps which involved a two day adventure at the London Parachute Centre in High Wycombe.

Our wheelchair athletes on Blue Peter

Mickey Bushell, David Weir, Tushar Patel, Shelly Woods and Brian Alldis were five out of seven wheelchair athletes who set off to re-create some of the speeds experienced at the Tunnel 2K race and were filmed by the BBC's Blue Peter.


In an earlier piece Shelly and Mickey displayed their skills by navigating around giant bean bags in the famous Blue Peter studios in West London.

In the actual 2K Tunnel race Mickey came 17th and completed the course in 8 minutes and three seconds. The winner was Jeff Adams, from Canada, coming in at four minutes 40.1 seconds through the tunnel, he beat our very own David Weir into second place.

However, Tushar Patel clocked the course's fastest speed of 41.4mph.

Australian Eliza Stankovic won the women's event with Get Kids Going! Shelly Woods second and our vice president Dame Tanni Grey Thompson came third.

In the mock race at the BBC, Tushar also came in just slightly ahead of David Weir.

If you would like to see a video of the Blue Peter story, click here.