A Wirral man is running on a gruelling seven treadmill marathons in one week to raise funds for Claire House.

John Hammond, 40, from Oxton will begin his challenge on Monday, December 12, at Total Fitness gym in Prenton.

Already completing 97 marathons he is determined to reach 100 by the end of the year but believes his treadmill challenge “doesn’t count”.

John told the Globe: “The idea came about to support Claire House in the run up to Christmas.

“The Justgiving page has raised almost £3,600 but I’m hoping to reach £5,000, usually when I start running is when I get the most donations.

“I’ll be running a marathon every day with someone by my side, I think there’ll be about 40 people involved during the week. 

“For other marathons I have been by myself so it’ll be great having other people with me who will also be completing 10k’s and half marathons. People will take my mind of it, it’ll be brilliant."

He added: “To be honest, I started running after playing football – I always wanted to run a marathon now I’m at 97.

“I have my 99th marathon planned for December 10 in Lanzarote and then my 100th in Liverpool on December 31.

“I was looking at my schedule and had a three week break so I wanted to fill the time, it’s too long for me to have a break from running. I am determined to do something for a local charity just in time for Christmas - I just have to be careful to not injure myself."

Representatives from Claire House will be coming to support John run his seven marathons over the week.

“Everyone who has donated has made a difference, the response from people who support me has been fantastic and the people from Total Fitness for providing the treadmills and buckets for the week.

“The support and feedback I’ve been given has been amazing because it’s going to be a tough challenge as I have never ran a marathon after a full day of work. I’m up in work at 6.30am so it’s going to be a long week.”

After his one hundredth marathon, John is still determined to raise more money for charity.

“I have an Iron Man booked for next year but I’m not that good at swimming so come new year I will be working on building on that.”

To support John visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/JohnHammond100