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Former international javelin thrower runs a marathon in his garden for the NHS

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A visibly emotional James Campbell said he was blown away by all the support after running a marathon in his six metre long garden.

Campbell, a former international javelin thrower, provided us all with some stunning live sport after running the marathon to raise money for the NHS amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

“It’s amazing, I was choking up a bit a minute ago, it’s just unbelievable.” he said.

“Thank you so much to you guys for supporting it. The money it’s raised as well, it’s absolutely incredible.

“The fact that it’s raised some money for a good cause, it’s the only thing I wanted to do. I put myself through some suffering for that. 

“My athletics career didn’t really end as planned so this tops that by quite a way.”

The challenge started as a tweet from the Scottish javelin record holder, with Campbell saying he’d do it if he got 10,000 retweets, before gaining attention from England and Manchester City footballer Raheem Sterling and Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi, who wished him good luck.

Within hours he had reached the target and set up a fundraising page to raise money for the NHS.

Olympic medallist and athletics broadcaster Katharine Merry described the joy of watching this challenge unfold. 

“This has been the the best day that I’ve had in this pandemic and lockdown since it started, genuinely,” she said.

“I’m just transfixed watching him run up and down for such a good cause. I haven’t smiled this much since lockdown.”

Campbell, a fitness instructor and sports massage therapist from Cheltenham, has already smashed his target of raising £10,000 for the NHS, and is now aiming for £1,000 per mile.

The entire marathon was streamed via YouTube, provided by athletics broadcasting company, Vinco. On the stream was renowned athletics commentator, Alex Seftel, who was joined by a host of celebrity guests throughout the day.

(Jacob King/PA)

Broadcaster Rob Walker, who joined the commentary team, summed up this momentous achievement: “James Campbell has shown that anything is possible in any circumstance,” he said.

Campbell completed the feat in just five hours and five minutes, with viewers from Australia to Aberdeen tuning in to support him.

If you’d like to donate to this fantastic cause, his fundraising link is below – 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/james-campbell0104

Some of the best reactions from the day –

https://twitter.com/seftelevision/status/1245365235701166081

https://twitter.com/J_Ennis/status/1245341953572683782

 

 

Author

  • Julia Cook

    After a year at Arsenal FC, Julia completed a BSc in sport science, building her journalism portfolio including articles in national publications, alongside working with Sport Swansea, British Athletics and Vinco. Julia has competed in athletics to a national level, football to an academy level and a stint with GB skeleton.

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