Geospatial luminary runs London Marathon for MapAction

She completed the course side by side with her god-daughter and fellow geographer, Jocelyn Moore who works for Natural England. Together they have so far raised over £8,000, which will be used by MapAction to help ensure disaster management teams around the world have the data and maps they need to effectively respond to humanitarian emergencies.

Dr Lawrence was the first female Director-General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, as well as the longest serving since 1875. She was the inaugural co-Chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and is one of the few recipients of the Scottish Geographical Medal. She was awarded the Global GeoSpatial Personality of the Decade 2000-2010.

“I offered to run for MapAction as I have seen first hand the excellent work they do in times of crisis,” said Dr Lawrence. “Joss’ partner Steve is a MapAction volunteer, and so Joss kindly suggested we did it together and we stayed together all of the 26.2 miles.”

Should you still wish to make a contribution, you can do so via Vanessa’s fundraising page: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/VanessaLawrence3