Our champions and ambassadors

Introducing Claire Lomas MBE & Stuart 'Pid' Hall

Claire Lomas and her family and friends have been fundraising for nsif for a number of years now and are real champions for Spinal Cord Injuries.

Claire died in 2024 – we caught up with her best friend, Stuart ‘Pid’ Hall, who continues to raise money for nsif in Claire’s memory.

“Built on love, trust and laughter”: Pid’s story of his best friend, Claire Lomas MBE

When Stuart “Pid” Hall talks about the late, great Claire Lomas MBE, something shifts in his voice. There’s affection, pride and, ultimately, love; to him, Claire wasn’t defined by the wheelchair people saw first. She was defined by the way that wheelchair disappeared the moment she spoke.

“She was such an open, lovely person,” Pid says. “Her personality was superb. She made everyone she talked to feel special.”

It’s a simple description, but it captures the essence of Claire: a person whose determination reshaped what people believed was possible.

Pid met Claire shortly after she completed her extraordinary walk of the London Marathon in a robotic suit. Their local town was hosting its annual sports awards, and Pid, who ran a family business engraving trophies, had prepared one for her. He didn’t know her yet, but he approached her afterwards and said, “If you ever need anything, just let me know.”

She emailed the next day, and the rest is history!

Pid said: “From that moment, we were just friends forever. We trusted each other completely. Our friendship was built on love and trust and laughter.”

That trust became the backbone of a decade of fundraising challenges and events. Whatever challenges or obstacles they encountered along the way, they faced them with humour:

“We had some tough times,” Pid admits. “Things didn’t always go to plan. But we always found the funny side.”

There wasn’t really a grand target in mind for Claire – she was just one of those people that wanted to show others that, if you put your mind to something, you can achieve anything.

“She never expected to raise big amounts,” Pid says. “It was always small donations that just kept building and building.”

It wasn’t until they reached £900,000 that the possibility of a million felt real. Even then, it seemed distant. But the number itself wasn’t what mattered to Claire. What mattered was the message behind every pound: that disability didn’t define her, and it shouldn’t define anyone else.

“She wanted people to see that if she could try something, they could too,” Pid says. “She didn’t want to say no to anything.”

Claire took every opportunity, even the terrifying ones. Especially the terrifying ones!

Claire’s walk of the London Marathon brought her global attention, but the challenge she cherished most was the Northwest 200 motorbike course in Northern Ireland. She had never ridden a motorbike on the road before.

“She was really nervous,” Pid remembers. “But when she got off the motorbike, she was elated. That one stayed with her.”

It was classic Claire: stepping into the unknown and refusing to be limited by fear.

Pid continued the fundraising after Claire passed away; not just for the cause, but to keep her memory alive for her daughters, for her family and for the thousands she inspired.

The moment that stands out most came at the Great South Run. Only Pid and one member of the Great Run team knew they had reached the million-pound mark. He kept it secret, deliberately avoiding updates on the fundraising pages.

He wanted to announce it on the start line.

Standing in front of Claire’s parents, Martin and Joyce, and her husband, Dan, he shared the news. Their shock, their pride, their emotion – that moment, he says, will stay with him forever:

“It was incredibly emotional. That’s the one that sticks with me more than anything in the last 18 months.”

Ask Pid to describe Claire’s legacy, and he pauses – not because he doesn’t know what to say, but because there’s so much to choose from.

“She never gave up,” he says finally. “She’d attempt anything. She didn’t know if she could do it, but she’d give it a go. And she encouraged everyone else to do the same.”

Her story is full of extraordinary achievements, but the heart of her legacy is simple: try. Take the opportunity. Don’t say no before you’ve even begun.

It’s a message she lived by – and one she passed on to everyone who met her, including the man who became her closest friend.

The Hull and East Riding Branch, Yorkshire

John and Angela Pye got involved with nsif after their eldest son, Steven, contracted a virus on his spine that caused paralysis from the chest down. That was in the summer of 2007, and the prognosis from the doctors was that he would never walk again. However, his absolute determination and commitment to rehabilitation and physiotherapy has seen him improve to the extent he is now able to walk with sticks.

His efforts inspired his parents to take up the challenge and raise awareness of, and funding for, a treatment for spinal injury. When they found out about David’s story, they felt an immediate affinity for what David and his family had been through. They recognised the desperation of a parent trying to do everything possible for his son, and wanted to donate their time towards furthering nsif’s cause.

Ever since, they have worked tirelessly to fundraise for nsif, running local events in Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire. All the money they raise is ringfenced for spinal injury research at UCL, continuing the work pioneered by the late Professor Geoffrey Raisman, whose integrity and dedication to curing spinal injury remains an endless source of inspiration to the Pyes.