A university lecturer who only took up long distance running just a few months ago, completed the London Marathon to raise more than £2,000 for his local Royal British Legion (RBL) branch.

And to boot, Dr Edward Gillin, 31, completed the gruelling 26 mile city run despite having contracted Covid-19 a mere two weeks earlier.

Edward, who raised £2,100 for the RBL’s Totnes Poppy Appeal said: “It was really good fun, I really enjoyed it.

“I had never run that far before - I had run five and 10k’s since the lockdown last spring and I quite liked that but obviously running a marathon is quite difficult.

“I went up to London in August and did a practice run, and I did it in about 3.5 hours but then I got Covid in September.

“I didn’t have any symptoms, I only found out because I filled out a PCR test to get back into England from France.

“When I started running again I could actually feel all the damage on my heart and lungs and that really freaked me out.

“I still can now - it feels quite tight around the heart and lungs, and I experience heart palpitations which is rather bizarre.

“It’s quite scary when you are out running and you start getting a series of heart palpitations. You wonder if it’s going to stop.

“I did get them about 20 miles into the marathon. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to finish the run.”

But finish it he did, in a respectable 3 hours and 11 minutes.

“I was aiming to do it in four hours, I thought I’ll run it really, really slowly but actually I think I did it in about 3.11,” said Edward, who has a job offer teaching history of science and architecture at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture in January.

“It was the adrenaline, as soon as I got past the start line it was just incredibly exciting and euphoric.

“People shout your name as you run past and kids put out their hands for a high-five.

“Everyone was so friendly; London is like this huge mega city and yet all these people, from incredibly diverse communities were all out sharing in this one event.

“It was absolutely brilliant, it made the city feel like a small, closely-knit town.

“I will definitely do another marathon.

“When I did the practice in August I thought do people really do this, what on earth are they getting out of it?

“But then when you actually do it in a public event there’s a great atmosphere.

“It’s really addictive and before the day was out I had put my name in the ballot for next year.”