Despite safety issues following the Boston bombings last week, Prince Harry says he never considered skipping his duties at the London Marathon yesterday.
Harry, who presented medals to the winners at the end of the course, paid tribute to the victims of the attack in Boston, but said the tragedy would not dampen the spirit of the London event.
“It was never an option not to be here,” Harry told the BBC. “The way Boston has dealt with it is remarkable and the great thing about the marathon is that no matter what colour, religion or nationality you are, everyone comes together to run and raise money for amazing causes. I think that you can never take that away from people.”
Harry added that many of the 36,000 runners competed in the race to raise money for charity.
“It’s a great opportunity for people from all walks of life to come along and raise money for their own personal charities, small or big,” said the prince. “For us we’re very lucky, we get a huge amount of places given to us by the marathon for all of our charities – my sister-in-law and William as well. We’re hugely fortunate for what the marathon does for us. We’re immensely grateful to them so I will continue to show my support where I can.”
