DAVID LEAN completed the Virtual London Marathon for Sporting Chance on Sunday.
Lean had originally intended to run the world's most famous race before COVID-19 saw the Marathon cancelled. He had been raising funds for Sporting Chance and was training hard for the original April date.
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After initially conceding that he would have to wait until 2021 to complete the achievement, Lean decided to take the opportunity to take part in the 'Virtual London Marathon' on Sunday 4 October and power-walked the 26.2 miles from Fleetwood to Preston.
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"I wanted to give something back to the Charity that had helped both myself my wife and the many other Survivors of Sexual Abuse within football," said Lean, who was able to access therapy treatment through Sporting Chance.
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"I wanted to also try and raise awareness of Childhood Sexual Abuse and of course highlight the great work of Sporting Chance."
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"After the cancellation due to Covid I decided that I did not want to put additional stress on my knees and would wait for next year before I train to run the London Marathon again for Sporting Chance.
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"However, the opportunity then came to be able to run this year through the virtual London Marathon and I decided to raise as much as I could by power-walking from Fleetwood to Preston.
"It was great, the weather in the North West held up well and lots of people greeted me along the way. Besides having a huge blister on the sole of my right foot everything went according to plan and I even achieved a time that as a power-walker I am very proud of being under six hours and 15 minutes."
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Sporting Chance CEO Colin Bland said: "David is wonderful man and we are extremely grateful for his efforts. All of us at Sporting Chance are very proud of David and of this fantastic achievement. Even the London Marathon being cancelled couldn't stop him running it!"
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Lean is already looking forward to running the London Marathon next year.
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For more information and to support David Lean, please visit his JustGiving page here.
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