Jessica Anderson, a nurse at the Royal London Hospital, was told her Guinness World Record attempt at the London Marathon would not count because she was not wearing a dress.
Anderson joined the world famous running event hoping to raise funds for Barts Charity, as well as gaining the title of the fastest female marathon runner dressed as a nurse.
However, her application was denied by Guinness World Record (GWR) stating that a nurse’s uniform “must include a blue or white dress, a white pinafore apron and a traditional white nurse’s cap.” Anderson couldn’t not qualify as GWR deemed that “scrubs could be confused with the fancy dress requirements for a doctor’s uniform.”
In an interview with Runner’s World, Anderson said GWR’s definition of nurse’s uniform was ‘outdated’. She said that “some of the nurses I work with do wear dresses but mostly we wear scrubs or a tunic and trousers. I’ve certainly never seen a male nurse wearing a dress to work.”
Although she did not become the ‘fastest nurse’, Anderson received support on her social media account from the public. The fund she raised for her Barts Charity campaign is now almost 5 times higher than her original target.
