Lindfield man’s year of marathons for hospice

The feat is being attempted by Craig Lovelock, 40, a painter who is trying to raise £1,000 for St Catherine’s Hospice.

Craig started his bid in April, with the Brighton Marathon and has since completed fourteen more including Blackpool, Zürich and Prague, which has been his favourite so far.

Despite missing one through injury, he has managed to maintain the pace for his charity cause.

He has participated in events in various European cities such as Riga and Copenhagen, before returning to the UK for marathons in Liverpool and Coventry.

Craig is funding his entire effort himself and is looking for painting or manual work to back his incredible pursuit.

At the weekend he will take on the Vanguard Way trail which starts in Croydon and will take him through the Sussex countryside to the coast at Newhaven.

The scenic route is usually a longer walking path but has been adapted for the runners on Sunday morning (August 2).

Craig then plans to continue his challenge by running in South East Asia, starting with Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Kuching in Borneo.

He aims to finish his oriental odyssey in Bangkok, Thailand’s sprawling capital.

Speaking before his massive effort started he said that his challenge was not as tough a task as that done daily by St Catherine’s Hospice.

The charity provides care for around 2,000 patients each year, with three-quarters of their funding coming from donations and fund raising like Craig’s.

St Catherine’s Hospice requires £15,000 each day to fund their services, staff have said that they were ‘in awe’ of fundraisers like Craig, praising his commitment.

He has so far raised £808, with all of this money going to the charity, a generosity much appreciated by those working day in, day out in Mid Sussex and Surrey.

A spokesman for St Catherine’s Hospice said: “We’ll be cheering on Craig every step of the way, and we know his efforts will make a real difference.”

Anyone inspired by Craig’s fundraising challenge can sponsor him on his charity page. Go to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/ and type his name in the search bar.

To find out more about St Catherine’s Hospice and its work go to www.stch.org.uk

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage at www.wscountytimes.co.uk

2 Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wscountytimes

3 Follow us on Twitter @wscountytimes

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

The County Times – always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.