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London Marathon: the round-up

Melanie May

Melanie May | 25 April 2018 | News

This year’s London Marathon has seen £45million raised online so far.
40,255 competitors crossed the finishing line in the biggest and hottest London Marathon to date with temperatures of up to 24C.
A record-breaking £21.8m has been raised so far through Virgin Money Giving by this year’s Virgin Money London Marathon. With money still coming in, this is expected to top £25m. On JustGiving, fundraisers have raised £22.3m (donations & gift aid) as well as an extra £1.6m offline.
£1.3m has been raised so far for the Teenage Cancer Trust, the official charity of the 2018 event, and it is estimated that over 2,000 charities will benefit overall.
 


The JustGiving page of chef and Masterchef: The Professionals finalist Matt Campbell, who died while running the race, now stands at over £134,000. 29-year-old Matt was fundraising for the Brathay Trust and in memory of his father who died in 2016. He collapsed at the 22.5 mile mark, and sadly died later in hospital. Some 3,000 people have now signed up to the Finish for Matt Facebook page, pledging to complete the race for him by doing a 3.7m run on Strava on Saturday, and giving a £5 ‘entry fee’ to Matt’s JustGiving page.
 
Here’s a round-up of some of the other Marathon fundraising news:


The oldest participant at 87, Samuel John Starbrook has raised £40,000 over the years through his running, and was running again this year for Age UK: his 32nd for the charity. So far he has raised just over £1,100.
 


The youngest competitor, Gabrielle Pearce, was running for Sense on her 18th birthday. So far she has beaten her £1,500 target with a current total of almost £2,300.
 


More runners for Sense, Craig Dennen and Lisa Lee are in fact running five marathons for the charity this year, with Craig having raised just over £1,053 so far with this one. The even bigger news though was Craig’s proposal to Lisa just before the finishing line.
 


83-year-old Jean Harcourt completed the Marathon (her second) for Parkinson’s UK, and has so far raised almost £1,200.
 


Simon Kindleysides became the first paralysed man to complete the Marathon, walking the route in a Rewalk exoskeleton suit. It took him 36 hours, and so far he has raised almost £8,500 for The Brain Tumour Charity.
 


In total, 45 firefighters and office-based members of the London Fire Brigade took part in this year’s Marathon. This included two groups, from North Kensington and Paddington, which ran to raise funds to help those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
North Kensington Red Watch have raised over £50,000 for children affected by the Grenfell Tower fire, while nine firefighters from A21 Paddington Red Watch ran in uniform, raising more than £90,000.
 

Beanstalk’s London Marathon runners all successfully completed the race – including one dressed as the Gingerbread Man. So far they have raised £10,618.67 for the charity, which will help it reach more primary school children across England who have fallen behind with reading.
 

Dressed as a giant poppy, 49-Year-old Owen Willis set a new Guinness World Record for the “Fastest marathon dressed as a three-dimensional plant (male)” category at the 2018 London Marathon. Owen was fundraising for The Royal British Legion and SSAFA, and has raised over £1,300 for the latter so far.
 

A mum from Rugby who had a heart attack in January completed the Marathon in just over six hours. Elaine Beauchamp ran the race for Action for Children. This January a gym visit nearly ended in tragedy when she suffered a cardiac arrest whilst on the rowing machine and owes her life to the fact that her gym had a defibrillator available. This is her first of three planned Marathons this year.
 

Vicky Bell. Picture credit: Guinness World Records


Two runners for WaterAid completed the Marathon dressed as a poo emoji and a man sitting on a toilet. 58-year-old father of three, Bob Prothero from Staines, Surrey finished in 5 hours 28 minutes and so far he has raised just over £3,600 for the charity. Vicky Bell set a new world record for the fastest marathon dressed as an emoji (female) whilst raising awareness and funds for WaterAid. Her time was 4:18:06 and she has so far raised just over £3,400.
 

Seventy Samaritans runners joined 40,000 competitors in the hottest London Marathon to date, raising more than £115,000 so far for Samaritans. The first runner to make it home for Samaritans was Simon West from Bristol, in three hours two minutes, while for veteran fundraiser Dave ‘the running phone’ Lock, from Woodford Green in Essex, it was his 20th London Marathon in costume for Samaritans, and his fiftieth marathon overall.
 
Main image: Thomas Lovelock for Virgin Money London Marathon

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Melanie May

About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.

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