Josh Francis

A Lincoln man is taking part in a continuous running challenge in order to raise awareness for a skin condition.

Shane Nicholl (23) spends every weekend taking part in a marathon or half marathon, as part of his 1,000 kilometres challenge.

Any money raised goes to the National Eczema Society.

He said: “My partner suffers from severe eczema and there’s a little I can do to help her on a daily basis.

“So I run to help raise awareness of the condition and collect funds. I’m going to extreme lengths to get noticed so people will be aware of the condition.”

Shane explained that running was already something he did, but wanted to get more out of it.

“I’ve being running since I was 18 and I gradually ran further distances. I always wanted to challenge myself physically and this was something I was already naturally doing.

“I didn’t want it to be a big stretch, but I didn’t want it to be something which wasn’t completely impossible.”

Each weekend, Shane tries to enter a race and run a certain a distance.

“I try to enter a race every weekend and run at least 20km in each. That’s 52 races to reach my goal. It’s 10km kilometres every weekend but with all the training I do in the week, it more than that.”

He added: “My girlfriend has been lucky with the support she has around her. I aim to raise this money to help those who probably don’t have that support.”

So far, Shane ran over 360km for his challenge. To leave a donation or words of support, visit his Just Giving page. He keeps updates on his website, and his partner also blogs about her condition.

Many cities have a folk hero, and Lincoln for brief period of time had a folk villain too, who went by the name of Dick Turpin, or John Palmer as he was known in Lincolnshire in the 18th century.

Local history researcher Cory Santos explained: “Dick Turpin was essentially a highway robber, and that entails being an armed robber on horseback who mostly operated in the North London and Essex areas. He eventually ended joining the Essex gang, a group of highwaymen.”

However, Turpin was eventually forced to leave this area, and flee.

“In 1737, Turpin murders a man, he then realises his time is up in the London area so he adopts a new name and becomes John Palmer. He mostly lives in the Humber area, however in he spends about 9 months in Long Sutton. He basically does the same thing, stealing horses and cattle and selling them on himself for profit.

“He also poses as a country gentlemen and goes shooting in the Humber area; he basically uses Lincolnshire as his private poaching ground.”

Turpin originally started out by stealing animals to kill and sell onto his butcher, the first trade his father taught him.

Cory Santos added: “Him and his partner Matthew King would hide out in the forest he was living in after he found himself on the run for various crimes. They would hide behind a tree and when someone came by they would come out and deliver the famous line ‘stand and deliver!’.”

Turpin was eventually caught in 1739 and hung in York.

Read more about Dick Turpin in this Britannia article.