Phil and Catherine’s challenge

Two years ago, Phil Packer suffered severe spinal injuries whilst on operational duty in Iraq. Incredibly, despite being severely disabled, he recovered sufficiently to complete his first London Marathon in 2009 over 14 days and raised over £1.3m for Help for Heroes.

In 2010 he aims to complete the 26 miles of the marathon in just 26 hours for 26 charities. These charities all support young people with disabilities. Boosting the profile of each of the 26 charities will help them raise even more funds.

At the start, and for the first mile, Phil will be walking with Catherine Bull, a young arthritis sufferer who is also completing the marathon for Arthritis Research UK. Their aim is to make people aware that 15,000 children suffer the pain of arthritis and to raise money to help fund our research into Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).