Glyn Marston's fundraising total hits £100k

A fundraiser from the Black Country has nudged his total over the £100,000 mark after years of pushing himself to the limit.

Glyn Marston, of New Invention, Willenhall, said he has just passed the milestone after more than a decade of helping charities.

He said it was a fantastic way to end 2010. Mr Mar-ston, aged 48, reached the enormous sum by running more than 30 marathons and numerous ultra marathons of distances between 32 and 145 miles.

He said he started running as a way to stop smoking in 1993. "I quit smoking, but I found it difficult to stay off cigarettes and was getting cravings for nicotine," he said.

"I just thought 'I have got to do something now because I will start smoking again. Within 12 weeks I had run my first marathon."

The Robin Hood Marath­on in Nottingham set father-of-two Mr Marston, of Ess- ington Road, on a path of constantly trying to better himself.

He ran the London to Brighton 55-mile road race between 1998 and 2003, and the 145-mile Grand Union Canal race from Birmingham to London for five consecutive years from 2001.

He said: "I have always had a stubborn personality, and that's the ingredient you need." But after his fifth 145-miler, he was devastated when doctors told him that there was no cartilage left in his knee at all.

A subsequent operation has not stopped Mr Mars-ton's efforts, and he is cycling and has completed wheelchair marathons since.