FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jenson Button Heads Celebrity Field for 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon
Formula 1 star Jenson Button heads a list of stars from television, film,
music, radio and sport lining up for the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon
on Sunday 26 April to raise funds for their chosen charities.
The 35-year-old former world champion and keen runner will be making his
Virgin Money London Marathon debut in April and is hoping to beat his
marathon personal best time of 2:58. Button is running for Charity of the
Year Cancer Research UK and has set a fundraising target of £5,000.
Joining Button in the Cancer Research UK team is British fashion designer
Henry Holland, who is raising money for the charity after several of his
close family and friends were affected by cancer. Scottish television
presenter and radio DJ Jenni Falconer will also be raising money for Cancer
Research UK in her fourth London Marathon.
Several sports stars and presenters will compete with Button to be the
quickest celebrity of 2015, all attempting to beat the current celebrity
best times set by former professional cyclist Chris Newton (2:45:10) and
model Nell McAndrew (2:54:39).
1968 Olympic 400m hurdles gold medallist David Hemery CBE, now 70, has been
persuaded to run his first marathon for 39 years by former race director
Dave Bedford. Hemery will be running with his son Peter and weightlifter
Michaela Breeze to raise funds for his charity 21st Century Legacy. Breeze
represented Great Britain at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
and won six medals for Wales over four Commonwealth Games.
Olympic champion rowers James Cracknell (running for Headway, the brain
injury association) and Zac Purchase (running for SportsAid) line up
alongside Welsh rugby union star Shane Williams (running for the World Wide
Fund for Nature).
Sky Sports' Sarah-Jane Mee will make her London Marathon debut, raising
money for the children's charity Sparks, whilst veteran marathon runner and
fellow presenter Charlie Webster will run for the fourth time to raise
funds for Centre Point.
Juliet Aubrey, Helen George and Dervla Kirwan are three of the famous faces
from the world of television drama taking on the London Marathon for the
first time this year.
Aubrey, ambassador for the charity Women for Women International, is most
famous for her roles in ITV's Primeval, and the BBC's The White Queen and
The Village. George meanwhile is best-known for her role as Trixie in the
hugely successful BBC series Call the Midwife and is running for Macmillan.
Star of stage and screen, Kirwan found fame playing Assumpta Fitzgerald in
household favourite Ballykissangel. She is running for the charity
ActionAid.
Reality television stars Hugo Taylor and Oliver Proudlock will put aside
the dramas of Channel 4's Made in Chelsea to run in aid of Malaria No More
and The Rainbow Trust, and the British Heart Foundation respectively.
Whilst April will be Proudlock's first experience of the London Marathon,
Taylor completed the 2014 race in a time of 4:17:51.
Greg James, BBC Radio One DJ and television presenter, will make his
marathon debut in London, raising funds for The Lords Taverner's.
Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research will have a strong representation from the
world of television including stars of Welsh drama Hinterland Hannah Daniel
and Richard Harrington, Doc Martin's Jessica Ransom, Casualty's George
Rainsford and Emmerdale's Jeff Hordley and Tony Audenshaw.
The full list of celebrities running the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon
is available here.
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