Teenager puts in marathon effort

Friday 13th April 2012

Gap year student Arthur Gallimore is running 12 marathons in 20 days to support the work of a children's charity he has seen in action.

Arthur, 18, is running 310 miles from Land's End, Cornwall, to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, east London in aid of LimXpo. He has so far raised £2,500 for the charity which works in Romania.

The former headboy at University College School, Hampstead, who has completed eight of the 12 runs, has crossed Cornwall and Dartmoor and is due to arrive in Yeovil on April 13.

To cope with the demands of his challenge he is having to eat a special diet of 4,000 calories a day.

Arthur said: "To think that I have run more than 200 miles boggles my mind. In truth it has passed like a blur and the marathons have become a painful part of a daily routine."

Arthur, who has already secured a place at Keele University, in Staffordshire, to read medicine in September, decided to support LimXpo after he visited Romania with the charity.

He said: "After my second visit to the projects last summer I came back and wanted to do something to raise money for the charity. The work they do is amazing, the effort I am putting in to this challenge is nothing when you look at all the time and effort that the charity workers put in."

Arthur will run from Yeovil to Shaftesbury on April 15, Shaftesbury to Winchester on April 17, and Winchester to Basingstoke on April 19.

His final run on April 21, will take him to the Olympic site.

To follow Arthur's journey and sponsor him, visit http://www.12marathonsin20days.blogspot.co.uk.

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