A BROMSGROVE man will be attempting to break the world record for a person running the London Marathon the quickest, whilst ‘dressed as an organ’.
Neil Sharma, who is an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, will be running the 26.2 miles dressed as a giant nose in aid of Get Ahead Charitable Trust.
To beat the world record he will need to complete the race in less than three hours and 37 minutes.
So far the father-of-two has almost raised £1,500 which will be put towards supporting the charity to provide hospital equipment for head and neck cancer patients across the Midlands and to fund research into the diseases.
Neil is aiming to raise more than £2,000 with hopes of reaching over that if he can.
He said working at the hospital he saw first hand on a daily basis how important the charity’s work was.
He added the costume was a home-made effort which his mum helped him with and was made out of polystyrene and plumbing tubbing with material over the top, making it very hot to wear.
Neil said, so he does not have to give up time with his wife and two children at the weekend, he gets up at 4.30am so he could run to work as part of his training, it is about 14 miles.
“I do not think anything can really prepare you for running a marathon in a giant nose costume.” he added.
“When I have gone out to try my costume out I have had some funny looks, people beeping and generally laughing.
“People think I am crazy but it is all for a good cause.
“My wife thinks I am crazy too but is really supportive – she knows from my work what the charity does.
“At the hospital, we see the direct result from the money raised and every penny counts.”
Neil said he had never done anything like this for charity before but he was really excited and there were lots of high spirits around the hospital.
He added: “We just want to raise as much money as possible.
“If I managed to hit the £3,000 mark it would be fantastic – just being able to give something back to the charity that supports our patients is amazing.”
To support Neil’s fund-raising mission visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/neilsharma or text nose79 and the amount you want to donate to 70070.
Visit getahead.org.uk for more.
