10 years, 10 stories: ‘This is so much more than football’ – Patrick’s Marathon March journey

• To sign up to this year’s Marathon March, head here.
• To donate to this year’s Marathon March, head here.
• For more information on the Marathon March, head here.

“It wasn’t something that ever really appealed to me, but Dad told me it was the best thing you could ever do, that it was incredible and how people came together to do it,” said the long-time Palace fan Patrick, ahead of the Marathon March 10-year anniversary event on Saturday 3rd October.

“I was a bit like, ‘all right, Dad, all right’, but he convinced me to do the second one with him in 2017 – and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Along with raising money for young South Londoners and doing something special for the local community, the Marathon March provides both physical and social benefits for those involved.

These include making new friends and building new relationships, all adding to the sense of pride, well-being and positivity for all those walking. And at his very first Marathon March, Patrick experienced this first-hand.

“I hadn’t done any training, my knees went and all these people were just steaming past me. By mile 13 I was already crying.

"I was by Chiswick Bridge nearly in tears. I was so close to giving up but I met Mark [Silverstein] and Julian [Chenery] and they walked with me. They kept telling me that I was going to get through it. They helped me get a second wind and I then shot off and left them, all after they looked after me,” joked Patrick, who was 25 when he finished his first Marathon March.

“It’s OK now though as I see Mark all the time at games and both of them at the Marathon March every year. They take the mickey out of me as I am always bolting my way to the front now – but these are the moments I’ll never forget; they didn’t know me but they wanted to keep me going, to talk to me and know about my life.

"I always say I do it on my own, but I don’t do it alone. You end up talking with so many people.”

Commitment to the cause

The Marathon March has helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Foundation projects and it does that by asking those participating to pledge to raise a minimum amount of sponsorship.

That sponsorship has helped the Foundation deliver mentoring, education, employability, disability sport and community programmes that reach over 18,000 young South Londoners every year, something which Patrick is keen to communicate to those supporting him.

“I want all my sponsors to know that I’m giving absolutely everything I can for their money, because it’s 26 miles of walking and I always tell them ‘you should see my feet at the end’,” he explains.

“It’s really important to give sponsors information about the Palace for Life Foundation; the work it does, who and what it supports. People then know that their donations are going to the right place.

“I tell my sponsors about participants like Angel. I’d seen her at some of the previous Marathon Marches, but one time I was at a corporate thing and there she was, standing in a suit.

"This was a girl who was being excluded from school, but who had had support from the Foundation thanks to one of their programmes, and was working for the club – you could see exactly where the money was going.

“And there’s Jesse, a new lad who came from Uganda, and was a target for gangs in South London who were telling him: ‘Look, you can earn good money, you can be a bit of a boss’.

"But he ended up going to the Palace for Life Kicks programme and is now studying, volunteering and being a youth leader amongst other things – these stories are living proof of where the sponsorship money goes to: it helps kids get off the streets.”

And Patrick was keen to stress that for anyone considering participating in the Marathon March who has never fundraised before or was worried about making their pledge commitment, there is support available.

“The staff at the Foundation are fantastic, unbelievable and they’re always on hand to talk to you and support you,” he explained. “The Palace for Life Foundation is growing and reaching out in more areas than ever. It can be difficult at times to raise money and get sponsors, but the people I reach out to know that I wouldn’t do what I do if it wasn’t worth doing.”

The last decade of Marathon Marches has seen Palace legends like Mark Bright, Andy Johnson, Fliss Gibbons and Julian Speroni plus Chairman Steve Parish join in alongside the incredible fundraisers, like Patrick, who had the chance to walk with former striker Andy Johnson, known as ‘AJ’.

“I idolised AJ growing up and walking with him was the best Marathon March I’ve ever done,” said Patrick, who has been a Palace fan since 1994 when he was seven-years-old and living in Sutton.

“My Dad met AJ on the first Marathon March, and then on the second Marathon March we both walked with AJ along the river from Richmond to Kew. I couldn’t believe it was just me, my Dad and Andy Johnson – I have all these pictures of us together.

“We talked about everything and I even asked him what his ‘eating a cheeseburger’ celebration was about when he used to score for us. He said he just did it and it was so good, because I was expecting something major, something special. I’ve actually seen him since that March and he’ll shake my hand and ask how my Dad is.

“That’s been the absolute highlight, but as a supporter of the football club, having met people from all levels within it now, my relationship with Crystal Palace has changed. There are veins within the club that I’m now attached to and that’s a different type of feeling towards Crystal Palace: my bond is so much stronger with the club now.”

Away from the Marathon March, Patrick has many highlights in his Palace supporting life – and the most obvious choice is closely followed by two other key games in club history.

“Emotionally, the FA Cup Final win is the biggest highlight, of course, but the Brighton 2-0 victory in the 2013 play-off semi-final second leg and the draw against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough to stay up in 2010, on ‘Survival Sunday’, are up there,” says Patrick, who is now based in Caterham.

“Before the game in Sheffield, it was so quiet, everyone was so nervous. Waiting for the tram before the game I met someone and they just said to me ‘I just want to get in and get out, I don’t want to even be here’, it was just so horrible, but then when we did what we did, and after being deducted 10 points that season, what we achieved by staying up comes close to the FA Cup Final win.”

Another key moment in his supporting life came from one of the most charismatic managers in Palace history when Patrick and his friends were given a lift back to the training ground from an away match on the team bus.

“Back in 2008 we were playing away at Norwich on a Tuesday night, John Oster scored a chip which won the game 2-1, but me and my friends ended up missing the last train home,” he explained.

“The Palace manager at the time, Neil Warnock, ended up giving us a lift back to Beckenham in the team coach, but when we arrived at the training ground he made us get his bags out of the team coach and put them in the boot of his car as payment.

"He ended up writing about it in his newspaper article so I will always have a soft spot for him, as he could have easily left us in Norwich, but he didn’t – he looked after us.”

And despite the obvious interest from Palace fans to participate in the Marathon March, Patrick wants everyone to know that fans from any clubs, those who do not follow football, and anyone else can participate.

“It’s important to know that you can do the Marathon March if you don’t support Palace, in fact one of the fastest people who walks it and has done for a number of years is a Liverpool fan. He actually has a Liverpool shirt on underneath his Marathon March Palace top.

"No-one will look at you differently... well, if you’re a Brighton fan, they’d probably keep a yard away from you, but they’ll still talk to you,” jokes Patrick.

“I never thought I was compatible to do it. I’ve done things for charity in the past, but I never thought I’d be walking and talking. As a fan, there’s always someone you see when you go to Palace game and you might say a few words to, but, maybe, you wouldn’t have anything else in common with that person.

“People can be judgmental – and that’s human nature – but on the Marathon March you could walk with the most polar opposite person and think you’ve got nothing in common with them, but you’ll find something in common that’s not football or Palace-related. This is so much more than football.”

Like many other fundraisers, Patrick is now readying himself for the 2026 Marathon March on Saturday 3rd October.

And while the event itself helps transform the lives of young South Londoners, he took time to look back on a near-decade of participation and how his own personal and fan journey has been shaped by his experiences en route.

“It’s about being with other people, testing your own strengths and proving to yourself what you’re capable of, that your mental and physical boundaries are much stronger than you believe.

"Mentally, you may think you’re not capable of doing something but sometimes all you need is that ‘Jiminy Cricket’ sitting on your shoulder, that person next to you, talking you through it,” he says.

“Personally, I’ve become a lot more accommodating to everybody in all walks of life. The Marathon March makes you connect with people you would never believe you could connect with.

"It allows you to realise that we’re all just human beings.”

• To sign up to this year’s Marathon March, head here.
• To donate to this year’s Marathon March, head here.
• For more information on the Marathon March, head here.