Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

North-east man to run 401 marathons across UK

Ben Smith at Murrayfield during his challenge.
Ben Smith at Murrayfield during his challenge.

A former Boddam man has set himself an extraordinary challenge of running hundreds of marathons for charity.

Ben Smith plans to undertake 401 marathons in as many days, in 309 different towns and cities across the UK.

The 33-year-old started the challenge last September in Bristol, where he now lives, and will run his 287th marathon in Fraserburgh later this month.

He is raising money to combat bullying within schools for charities Kidscape and Stonewall.

Mr Smith, who only began running three years ago, said he was overweight and depressed when he first put on his trainers.

He added: “I started running a few miles and then built this up and completed a few 10K races, and then my first half-marathon in 2012.

“The feeling I got from running was a sense of accomplishment which I had never felt before – I was hooked.

“Having never been very good in sport at school, you could say I started from nothing which made the achievement even sweeter.

“I’m extremely lucky to have such amazing sponsors, friends and family members that believe in what we are trying to achieve, and I couldn’t do it without them.”

Following his marathon in Fraserburgh, Mr Smith will participate in events in Peterhead, Ellon and Stonehaven before moving on to Montrose and Arbroath.

He hopes to raise £250,000 by the time his journey is complete.

Stonewall campaigns to eliminate homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in communities across the UK.

Kidscape, meanwhile, promotes work to protect children from bullying and abuse, and operates directly with people as young as nine through to parents, carers and those in professional contact with children.

So far, the 401 Challenge has raised £96,000.