Burgess Hill teacher dons Shakespeare costume for London Marathon: Haywards Heath resident John helps British Heart Foundation

John Clayton, 54, of Hoblands, Haywards Heath, takes on the challenge on October 2 to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation in memory of a lifelong friend.

Bradley D’Souza died of a sudden and unexpected heart attack on April 23, 2020, aged just 51.

“He was my oldest friend and he was a brilliant friend to everyone,” said John, who went to school with Bradley in London.

Bradley’s wife Gina, who lives in Melbourne, said she and her family are ‘fully supportive’ of John's fundraising mission.

She said: “Bradley was a lovely husband and an incredible father to our three children.

“Bradley was a very selfless person, and he would often go out of his way to help his family and friends.”

Gina added that people should donate to organisations like the BHF to fund research into cardiac arrest symptoms and help prevent deaths.

John explained that the idea for his Shakespearean challenge made perfect sense when it came to him.

He said the only time he and Bradley ran a marathon together was in 1995 – the Shakespeare Marathon for Cancer Research.

“It was the last time I ever did a marathon,” said John, who also ran the London Marathon in 1990.

John said he ‘wasn’t in great shape’ but wanted to do the marathon again in Bradley’s memory and wrote to the BHF who encouraged him to raise funds.

He began training in January and realised he could make more money by running the marathon as Shakespeare.

“I bought a fancy dress costume online to the huge embarrassment of my teenage kids and myself,” he said.

John, who starts teaching at Burgess Hill Academy soon, has taught all over Sussex, including at St Paul’s Catholic College in Burgess Hill.

He lives in Haywards Heath with his wife Mora, and three of his four children, with his eldest son in the British Army.

He is at Haywards Heath’s British Heart Foundation shop twice a week.

John added that he got his own heart checked and has a clean bill of health for the marathon.

“Now it’s just about the legs, which are not 20 years old anymore,” he said.

The fundraiser is at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-clayton11.