Pagham man runs marathon in back garden for Chestnut Tree House

Charles Griggs, 25, from Pagham, studied Exercise Science at university in the United States before coming back home for the lock down.

Having done some research into his feat, which began at 11am today (Tuesday, May 12) Charles found that he would have to run 3,953 lengths of his garden to complete the marathon.

He has been raising money through JustGiving for children's hospice charity Chestnut Tree House after seeing a plea for help on social media.

Click here to donate.He said: "I'm starting at 11am and hope to finish at about 6pm. It will be hard to pick up momentum. I did 13 miles a week ago and it took me three hours and 20 minutes so we are look at the seven hour mark.

"I just felt like I wanted to look into a different charity because there are more than one charitable causes.

"I heard they needed our help, I knew instantly. They put a crisis page out saying that they are losing a lot of money so I've never looked back. These people need our help."

At the time of writing, Charles has raised £994, more than his original £800 target.

"The support has been amazing to be honest. I have had a lot of people around me give positive words and believing in me so that I will do well and complete it.

"It has been fantastic."

Donations came flooding in from friends and family including some from Arizona, North Carolina and Michigan.

"I really appreciate everything that they have done and I'm absolutely astonished at what they have done. Whilst I am doing the run I have asked people if they want to run with me on Facebook Live just to get people involved."