The John Briffa Brigade take on the Bath Half!

As we approach the Bath Half Marathon this Sunday, ‘The John Briffa Brigade’ (Tonia, Olivia, Hugo, Edie, Theo and Emma) will be running the Bath Half on behalf of John Briffa, who died in May 2022.

Ahead of Sunday’s event, Olivia, one of John’s granddaughters, tells us what Dorothy House’s care and support meant to her family in the lead up to John’s final days, and their mission to raise as much money as possible to ensure Dorothy House can continue providing much-needed palliative and end of life care in the BaNES area.

John Briffa, aka Nannu

“We’re very happy to be running this year’s Bath Half Marathon on behalf of John Briffa, who sadly passed away in May 2022 and is much missed by us all.

By way of introduction, I’m Olivia, one of John’s granddaughters, and I will be running alongside more of John’s grandchildren – Hugo, Edie and Theo, and also one of his daughters, Tonia.

John, or Nannu, as his grandchildren called him, was originally from Malta but moved over to England in his early days and soon set up home in Bath in the 60s with his wife Annetta and children Jonathan, Fiona and Tonia. John has an extended family, with many now based in Australia, too, having emigrated there during the war.

John was a keen golfer, a lover of all things maths and physics, a sun worshipper, and above all else, a family man with an extremely generous and supportive heart. He would always offer you words of encouragement and often say to you to ‘enjoy life’. In that spirit, we look forward to enjoying running the Bath Half in October!

Support from Dorothy House in John’s final days

Dorothy House was a great support to John in the run-up to his final days and, indeed, to our family too. We, therefore, are very passionate about raising as many donations as possible to ensure Dorothy House can continue to offer the great level of care that you were able to provide to our Nannu, our John Briffa.

The John Briffa Brigade – Olivia, Tonia, Hugo, Edie, Theo and Emma“.

You can read more about The John Briffa Brigade’s story via their fundraising page here.

Good luck to all of our runners!

We look forward to welcoming all of our runners and supporters on Sunday and wish you the best of luck if you are running for us.