Grace’s brother takes on epic run in her memory (From Cotswold Journal)

Grace’s brother takes on epic run in her memory

2:00pm Friday 1st March 2013 in News

A POPULAR schoolgirl who died in a car crash three years ago is being remembered in a fitting way by a charity she supported.

The name of netball-loving Grace Hadman, of Lower Swell, who died in a car crash in April 2009 when she was just 17, will live on by being part of a new sporting project in Africa.

Tom Bowden, co-founder of charity Building Malawi, has pledged to build Grace’s Netball Court in Lilongwe, Malawi, so young underprivileged girls can have access to the sport.

Grace, who boarded at St Edward’s School in Oxford, was familiar with the charity and she once raised money for it by doing a 24-hour fast.

To help fund the project, her brother Jasper is running a 79-mile ultra marathon in three days along the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site in the south of England.

The 29-year-old, who works for a publishing company in London and is friends with Tom, has been training hard for the Jurassic Marathon which starts from Charmouth on March 22 and finishes in Shell Bay on March 24. He said: “It’s nice to be doing something which is focussing on Grace again.

I’ve been doing some training over the last two months to try and get ready for it.

“Grace really loved netball and played it at school. She won an award just before she died especially made for her for the most improved player.

She was really proud of that.”

Jasper’s friends, Mike Dunn, 29, Ben Watson, 29, and Ross Bruce, 28, will be joining him for the race and is hoped the new court will be decorated with Grace’s artwork.

About £3,200 has already been raised but Jasper hopes he can reach £5,000.

To sponsor Jasper, visit justgiving.com/jasper-hadman.

For more information on the charity, visit buildingmalawi.com.