‘Buy This Man a Drink’ rockets to $14,000 for childhood leukaemia as our man comes in for soft landing

‘Fat’ Dan Hogan and his much younger brother Paul, the publisher of anna.aero. “TeamBrontë” has raised over $14,000 this year including generous donations from anna.aero readers.

Last-minute pledges and anna.aero’s matching of sums pledged have seen our ‘Buy This Man a Drink’ campaign for the London Marathon raise over $14,000 for a range of childhood leukaemia charities, including: CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, the Anthony Nolan Trust and The Royal Marsden Children’s Unit.

anna.aero’s publisher, Paul Hogan completed the course in 3.40 exactly – curiously this was his target time to the second – a personal best for the 46-year-old whose 10-year-old daughter successfully underwent a bone marrow transplant last year. “It was a fabulous day – the weather was immaculate and there must have been some 300,000 noisily partying and cheering us along the route – it really is a fantastic way to see London and Londoners,” said Hogan.

“It’s now left to me to thank the readers of anna.aero – the names are too many but colleagues at Air Astana, Aer Lingus, OAG, Ryanair, Emirates, vivaaerobus, easyJet, Virgin, WestJet, and a small airline called Southwest come to mind. I also need to single out the Tax Free World Association for making the single biggest and very generous donation – so please, always buy your duty free.” Hogan was joined in the fundraising effort by his older brother ‘Fat’ Dan Hogan (age unknown) and Dan’s son, Sean (21). Dan unfortunately suffered a tendon injury but bravely managed to struggle home with a respectable 4.29 while Cardiff University student Sean secured a 2.58 – and, believe it or not, he was disappointed with that!

The Buy This Man a Drink campaign suggests a donation of the cost of a drink – maybe for €5, $5 or £5. If you buy Hogan one – anna.aero will ‘buy you one back’ by matching the donation. Hogan doesn’t drink any more (although he certainly used to) but he is happy to tell us: “My daughter is doing much better now but I owe her life to some entirely voluntary organisations such as the Anthony Nolan Trust which sourced her donor for us from the USA. In the last two years I’ve raised over $50,000 like this – make no mistake, I run for fun – but this has got to be a pretty useful sum. I know from my own experience that this medicine is global. Children everywhere will benefit.”

If you still want to buy Hogan a drink anna.aero is open 24/7 for any donations in hard currency at: www.bmycharity.com/teambronte