THE founder of Southend’s legendary Colourthon is looking forward to a 13th successful year of the fundraising event.

Today, the town will see the return of the Colourthon, a charity fun walk with entrants encouraged to be as bright and bold as possible.

Julian Hart, 56, from Southend had the inspiration to create the annual event in 2006 with the intention to support smaller Essex charities.

He said: “As a member of Southend Round Table we used to receive many requests for donations from local charities and beneficiaries who were fundraising for equipment, for example, but it was also apparent they would love a vehicle in which they could fundraise for themselves but in many cases did not have the infrastructure or manpower required.

“I had myself a few years earlier taken part in the Moonwalk in London and it was fantastic.

"I saw the opportunity to create - what I like to term - an umbrella event based around that idea. Early one morning in the back of a car on a business trip to Birmingham with a couple of fellow ‘Round Tablers’ we developed the idea in more detail for what was to become the Colourthon.”

The first event took place after 17 months planning on July 7, 2007.

One of the charities Julian wanted to help was Fair Havens Hospice, which cared for both of Julian’s parents at the end of their lives in Westcliff.

Julian’s mum, Dawn, was diagnosed with bowel cancer on New Year’s Eve in 2000 and was admitted to Fair Havens specifically for end-of-life care in late October 2001, she died on October 30 aged 64, the day after Julian turned 39.

She was only in the hospice for a week, but Julian said it was “a weight off their shoulders” to get the support.

In 2015 Julian’s dad, Alan, was diagnosed with kidney failure, among other conditions. Following his diagnosis, Alan spent a lot of time in and out of hospital and in the end refused dialysis.

Initially a room was not available for him but they received outreach support and in September 2018 he was admitted to Fair Havens. He died aged 81 on September 19 last year.

In 2018, Julian was recognised at the Southend Citizen Awards for his charity work, in particular the Colourthon.

He said: “When I received notification of the award, I thought it was a prank, but it turns out it wasn’t.

“At the award ceremony they spoke about Colourthon which to date has now raised over £1.53million for 720 different charities.

“I got to meet other recipients of these awards and it just astounds me - we have such a huge number of volunteers in this country who are amazing.

“These are people giving their time and energy for a myriad of causes, day in, day out, without any thought of reward and this sort of occasion really brings it home to you.

“It quite simply would never have happened without my family, fellow ‘tablers’, really close friends and people who selflessly gave so much of their time and effort and ignored my tantrums, to make Colourthon so successful.

“So, I look at this as being a joint award with them for all of their efforts and would urge young men to get involved with the Round Table, it’ll definitely be one of the best decisions they will make.”

Julian’s award also came with a charitable donation of £250 for the charity of his choice which he chose to donate to help Fair Havens Hospice “take the next step” towards building a purpose-built facility which will be able to care for twice as many patients from across Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.

He added: “Now more than ever it is vitally important to support them as they embark on the next part of their journey and in the hope that many others will benefit from this wonderful facility.”

The Colourthon returns today at 6pm, participants can choose to take part in either the Moonlight Colourthon which is a half marathon fun walk or the Twilight Colourthon 10K fun walk.

“Both walks have cash prizes donated to the winners’ nominated charities for ‘best costume’, ‘most sponsorship raised’ and ‘largest team’.

To register, visit www.colourthon.org.

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