Cumbrian man raises half a million pounds running a marathon a day for a year

Cumbria's own marathon man Gary McKee is now on the final legs of his mammoth marathon a day for a year challenge.

Every morning he's ran the grueling 26 miles, balancing his fundraising, running, family life and work commitments throughout.

It's his second year of running challenges, having done 100 marathons in 100 days last year, and has previously completed other impressive feats, such as climbing Kilimanjaro all in the name of charity

He's raising money for just two charities this time round though, Hospice at Home West Cumbria and Macmillan Cancer Support.

He explained why he chose those charities: "I've fundraised for Macmillan Cancer Support for around 20 years now after my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 1997.

"He was a cancer survivor and after that he seen his life in a different light. He rolled his sleeves up, got on with it, and seen it as he'd been given a second chance.

"He passed away in 2003 of an unrelated illness and I wanted to do some fundraising in his memory. I went back to the day we were told he had cancer, and then became a fundraiser for Macmillan.

"I became a fundraiser knowing that people were being told the same news we were being told. Cancer is indiscriminate, it affects every single person.

"Whatever is raised at the end of this will be split between Macmillan and Hospice at Home West Cumbria. I think they do a fantastic job of going into the homes of people and giving the support that the family and people need during their darkest times."

Since he began fundraising Gary has raised well over a million pounds for his chosen charities, with his latest efforts, and according to Gary, the most difficult, the marathon a day for a year, bringing in nearly half a million pounds.

Discussing how he feels in the build up to his final run on NYE Gary said: "Physically I'm absolutely great, my legs feel fine, but you start getting a little bit emotional with what the finish is going to look like.

"When I ran 110 marathons last year there was hundreds of people out on the street, people waiting for me at the finish line.

"I know this is a lot bigger, it is enormous, there's thousands of people climbed Everest and swam the channel, but there is nobody in this country that has ran 365 marathons in 365 days. In the world there's only a handful.

"I've done all this while I've been working, I've got three kids, my wife works, so it's been a balance of working, get the runs in and fitting everything into my family life.

"Regarding the community, everybody has got behind me from the day I sat down with my family and told them my plans.

"I got support from them, and you need that kind of support."

Despite challenges like scheduling, injury and the unpredictable Cumbrian weather, as he approaches the last 26 miles, there's apparently never been a day Gary thought about stopping.

"I've never had a day where I thought I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew.

"The way I see it each each run is 365 opportunities to help other people. Whatever I'm going through the people I'm fundraising for are going through ten times worse.

"We always talk about the weather, but I remember when I did my 110 marathons and it was just two of us running, it was absolutely lashing down.

"I started laughing and my friend asked what was funny, I just said 'somebody is going to walk out of a cancer ward today and ring the bell to show their treatments finished. They'll go outside and see the rain and think it's the nicest rain they've ever seen. When that hits their face it'll be the nicest thing they've ever seen. We're running in somebody else's rain.

"It makes you feel invincible and just pushes you forward. We're not doing it for us but so that somebody can ring that bell.

"I've never felt challenged because it's all on my terms, if I want to go quick I'll go quick, if I want to go slow I'll go slow.

"I've managed my injuries, I've had some I had to slow down for, but it was never going to stop me doing what I had to do. I could never face somebody going through a cancer battle and say I had to stop because my leg was sore."

At the time of writing Gary has raised £415,000 for charity, and with only one day to go this number could still climb.

To donate click here.

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