CLEATOR Moor 'Marathon Man' has announced his latest challenge - and it's bigger than anything he's done before.

Each day starting from January 1, 2022, Gary Mckee will run 365 consecutive marathons, hoping to raise a colossal one million pounds for charities Macmillan Cancer Support and West Cumbria Hospice at Home.

Speaking about the challenge, he said: “It will be my biggest challenge in terms of duration. I did actually run 550 consecutive days a few years ago…but it wasn’t to these levels - I was doing 100 miles a week. With this I’ll be doing almost double that. So it is a big one.

"But it’s a day at a time and that’s all I have ever looked at. You don’t look any further than the day after when you’re doing your run - you focus on what you’re doing and setting yourself up for the following day.”

Gary is no stranger to crazy challenges, having completed 110 marathons in 110 days earlier this year.

He is confident that this challenge will be completed, just as his last was.

Gary has already began raising funds, with more than 100 vests already being sold for the challenge, raising just over £10,000 for the two charities.

He said: “People don’t just want the vests for January, they also want them for December so they can see that it is long and drawn out, and they understand that whilst it’s difficult, they know who is doing it and what my calibre is and they believe in me like I believe in myself, and we will get there.

“It has been very busy - my phone has never stopped. I’ve had messages from celebrities, and it is quite nice to have people supporting you right from day one.

“The response has been quite overwhelming. When you start reading posts and you see how people perceive you as an individual, there’s been no negative comments whatsoever, it’s all been: if anyone can do it, you can.”

He believes the challenge is now more important than ever - with Covid affecting cancer services hugely.

He said: “I think it’s sort of masked cancer support and those services. A lot of people's appointments have been missed and therefore diagnosis will have been [too].

"Cancer will once again raise its ugly head, only this time it will do it in a really big way.

“This isn’t about what I can do. It’s about how many people we can help."