Dad completes London Marathon with 20kg on back in memory of his son

Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing

A dad who completed the London Marathon wore a backpack with 20kg of weight in it to honour the memory of his son.

Those taking on the marathon in the capital yesterday (27 April) might have spotted a man wearing a shirt saying: "I'm carrying 20kg. The weight of my son when he died at 6. The weight of grief. The weight of cancer."

He'd have been wearing a backpack with the name 'Hugh' on it, along with many other names.

That's Ceri Menai-Davis, a devoted dad who has been raising money for his charity, It's Never You, which aims to help the families of children who are diagnosed with cancer.

Speaking to LADbible, Ceri opened up about carrying his son's weight with him on the London Marathon, with him having raised over £25,000 and counting for charity in a fundraiser, which you can donate to here.

He explained that his son was diagnosed with cancer in October 2020, and after six months of Hugh receiving chemotherapy, Ceri felt he 'needed to do something to get myself fit', and applied for a place in the London Marathon.

Hugh passed his first set of treatments in May 2021, with Ceri saying the boy acted 'like a superhero' all the way through as he took every treatment without complaint, and his dad started training for the marathon.

He remembered how on 27 August of that year he went out for a training run and his wife Frances brought Hugh along in the car to watch, with the dad remembering how his son was shouting 'come on daddy, come on daddy' to encourage him.

Hugh's sixth birthday was on 30 August, but sadly two days later, the child relapsed and he died on 18 September.

Speaking of his son's last days, Ceri explained that he asked Hugh what he was going to do and the boy told him 'go do it daddy, go and do it, go run London'.

When Hugh was laid to rest he was buried with the medal Ceri got from running the London Marathon, and the boy's parents started the charity It's Never You after thinking what else they could do to make their son proud.

"Ever since after that I've always said 'right, I've got to continue to do it' and do something to make him proud," Ceri said of the decision to start a charity.

"And then my wife and I started the charity It's Never You up because we felt completely isolated as parents having a child with cancer, because, quite rightly, the focus was on the child, but no one ever asks, 'are you okay as a parent?'

"They just think you're going to be strong. It's the worst time of your life, really, and so we started up to look after parents who had children with cancer.

"We're doing loads of things trying to change the law with Hugh's Law, which is trying to give parents financial support."

2025 is the fourth time Ceri has run the London Marathon, having previously done it wearing a cape with 200 names on it.

This time around he wore a rucksack with 20kg of weight in it and the names of 450 children on it.

Ceri told LADbible: "I set the challenge of, Hugh weighed 20 kilos when he last went into hospital, and I thought there's so much that happens when your child gets told that they have cancer, and it's not just the fact that they go through treatment, life changes as a parent, it's not the thing you expect to be doing.

"You expect to be going off into the sunset together, take him down the pub when he's 18, take him to watch his first Arsenal match at 12.

"There's all these things that you expect to do, and you don't expect to be sat by him in the bedside taking chemotherapy at five years old, and it's the weight on your shoulders as a parent of expectation to be there, present and well for them.

"Also, you know, I've lost my son. I've got two beautiful boys at home as well, and it's the weight of grief that's on your shoulders. It never leaves you.

"The 20 kilos was to signify not just only Hugh's weight, but the weight of what childhood cancer is on a parent."

Ceri explained that this time around he 'walked very briskly' for the London Marathon, and before he set off he put out a call on social media to say that if anyone who had a child with cancer or had lost their child to cancer wanted to give him their name he'd put it on the rucksack.

In the end, he 'managed to fit 450 names of children on the rucksack and took them all with me', with Hugh's name in the boy's own handwriting on there too.

As well as the physical weight on what turned out to be a hot April Sunday in London, the dad spoke about the emotional weight of doing all of this.

He said: "As you walk past, people say, 'go on, Hugh'. It brings a tear to your eye, because he, I know he's there with me, doing it in my mind and on my shoulder, doing it.

"The last 50 meters, when I saw the finish line, I burst into tears. David, my friend who was walking alongside me, we just hugged 50 meters before the finish line, I broke down a bit emotionally because now you set yourself so emotional when you're going around doing it, and it just gets overwhelming when I saw the finish line."

Once again, the Just Giving page Ceri has been raising money on can be donated to here.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.