London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

LSHTM’s Director of ITS, Graeme Cappi, is taking on the London Landmarks Half Marathon on April 7, 2024, raising funds in memory of Professor Jeroen Ensink. Jeroen was a Senior Lecturer in Public Health Engineering at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who was attacked outside his home and died from his injuries, aged just 41.

As a keen sportsman and senior member of staff, just like Jeroen was, we are very proud that Graeme is setting such an excellent example to the LSHTM community, and we are very grateful for his hard work training and fundraising for the Jeroen Ensink Memorial Fund.

Graeme will be running the London Landmarks Half Marathon alongside 19 others, as well as being part of a bigger team of LSHTM runners, including 10 inspiring students, alumni and friends of LSHTM, taking part in the Cambridge Half Marathon on March 3, 2024. You can check Graeme’s progress and help him move closer to his goals on his JustGiving fundraising page. If you’re interested in taking part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon next year, you can register your interest now.

After a tour across southern East Africa in 2022 with their 8-year-old daughter, Fleur, Jeroen’s widow, Nadja Ensink-Teich, was hoping to run alongside Graeme this year, marking 9 years since Jeroen passed away, to help relaunch fundraising and awareness to continue Jeroen’s legacy through the Jeroen Ensink Memorial Fund. Despite an inspiring start to Nadja’s fundraising, she sadly won’t be able to run with us on this occasion but she continues to work closely with LSHTM, helping celebrate Jeroen's life and work as 2025 marks 10 years since Jeroen’s passing.

Also on April 7, 2024, down on the UK’s South Coast, Professor Val Curtis’ son Abi Sakande will take on the Brighton Marathon, raising funds in memory of his mum, who sadly passed away at the age of 62 in 2020 due to cancer. This is Abi’s first full marathon for LSHTM, but certainly not his first fundraising endeavour for the Val Curtis Memorial Fund. If you are interested in finding out more about Abi's full marathon, you can take a look at his fundraising page and consider sharing it with your networks. As an extra incentive, in honour of Val’s work in public health and, specifically, the area of ‘disgust’, Abi has pledged to wear a toilet-themed outfit for the entire marathon if he can raise £1,500 by 17 March.

These are not Graeme and Abi’s first community fundraising events for LSHTM, having both completed the London to Brighton bike ride in September 2023 (pictured below), helping raise over £10,000 for scholarships. Before this, Abi took part in the 2023 London Landmarks Half Marathon and smashed his personal target to raise over £500. Graeme and Abi love a sporting challenge, and somehow find time in their busy lives to keep up their training, and help raise awareness and funds to support the next generations of global health leaders to study at LSHTM, striving to improve human health and health equity. We are very proud and thankful to Graeme, Abi and all of our amazing Community Fundraisers who have helped raise funds and awareness by taking part in a challenge event in the last few years.

What’s next?

If you, or anyone you know wants to get involved in the 55 mile London to Brighton cycle ride on Sunday, 15 September 2024, you can register your interest to be considered for a free place now. This ride is open to students staff, alumni and friends of LSHTM and we have a limited number of paid-for places to allocate. If a half marathon is more to your liking, you can register your interest now to be considered for a place to run the London Landmarks Half Marathon in 2025 for LSHTM.

If you are interested in taking part in another event like this for LSHTM, please get in touch.