The Great North Run will celebrate its 45th anniversary on Sunday with its biggest-ever field of 63,000 competitors. Organisers estimate it has raised more than £450m for good causes since 1981, and that figure is likely to reach half a billion pounds in the next two years.
Record-breaking event
The event already holds the world record from 2014 as the biggest half marathon in history, when 41,615 crossed the finishing line; it will set a new record this year. First staged in June 1981, the race was founded by ex-athlete Sir Brendan Foster, 78, after he was inspired by taking part in New Zealand's Round the Bays Race in 1979.
Sir Brendan said: "It has been the biggest mass participation event in the UK for some time and we entered the Guinness Book of Records many years ago. This will be our biggest run yet. In around two years, the money raised for charities will hit the half-billion-pound mark."
Notable participants
The former long-distance athlete said he is looking forward to England and Newcastle United star Dan Burn starting their biggest ever event on Sunday. He is following in a fine Toon tradition after Kevin Keegan ran the first 1981 event in a top that was half in Newcastle United's colours and half in those of Sunderland.
Ruth Johnson, who works on the paediatric care ward of the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, is running for the Children's Heart Unit Fund. She told how Mirror campaigner Max Johnson, now 18, inspired her during her early days on the ward in the months before he had his heart transplant in 2017. Max and his heart donor Keira Ball's story changed the law on organ donation in England following our 'Change the Law for Life' crusade.
"He taught me and inspired me from the very start," she said. "It will be so emotional for me, thinking of all the incredible families and children on the ward. I will have a big smile all the way around."
Charity challenges
A former producer of the Mirror Pride of Britain awards is on a mission to raise £100,000 after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year. Matthew Cox, 47, will be pushed in a wheelchair by his sister Natalie Owen, 39, from Wales and brother Tomos Ashton-Cox, 30, from Essex, before he walks the last eight miles. He has already completed the London, Leeds and Wales marathons since his diagnosis and has raised almost £80,000.
"I want to raise £100,000. I may have to speak to Brendan Foster to keep the roads open for me at the finish. But I will keep going with every last breath."
Cliff Thornton, 79, of Ovington, Northumberland, is in the elite club of runners who has taken part in every single Great North Run. He vividly remembers the first one in 1981 when he ran in a pair of 'suede and plastic shoes' from British Home Stores. But he soon became a keen runner, clocking a PB of 1hr 19mins, and won a competition for the best GNR run T-shirt picture when he and his family were pictured in the Alps.
"It has been an amazing experience for me," said the retired finance director.
Growing participation
The Great Run Company, which runs the event, said the number of competitors aged 25 and under has almost doubled over the past five years, with more than 15% of entrants now falling into that age group.
Eilish McColgan, the Commonwealth Champion, and four time Olympian, recalled running the Great North Junior Run with her mum Liz, who won the race in 1992. She said: "I had never been in a race before and had not joined a running club. It was cold and wet, very British weather, but it was good fun and made me decided to join a club back in Dundee."
"I never thought that I would become a professional athlete and be here all these years later. My mum and dad have both done it. My little brother is doing it for the first time this year."
"It doesn't matter if you are elite, doing it for a Personal Best or running for charity, everyone covers those same 13.1 miles. It is the same route that I run and Mo Farah ran. The history of the Great North Run is quite unique, and that is why it is so iconic."
