Tynemouth man running 128 marathons in 128 days in brother’s memory

A man who lost his brother to suicide has said he was running a marathon a day for 128 days in his memory.

Leodhais Macpherson, from Tynemouth, wants to cover the equivalent of the distance between North Shields and New York, where his older brother Connor wanted to live.

The 3,332 mile (5,362 km) challenge started at the end of January and is set to finish on 2 June, the day Connor would have turned 28.

Mr Macpherson said revisiting emotions around the loss of his brother, who died in 2018, had so far been the hardest part of the challenge.

“That’s probably been one of the hardest things so far over the past five weeks,” he said.

“Not so much actually doing marathons, but just opening up that can of warms all over again, having to go through those sorts of emotions.

“It’s definitely difficult going through something like that, but running for me has been a massive coping mechanism.”

Mr Macpherson, who has been running competitively since he was 12, added he had already smashed his fundraising target of £10,000, with money going towards the RNLI and the If U Care Share Foundation.