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A father from Hull has completed the Great North Run for the tenth time – this time dressed as Paddington BearTM.
Charlie Paterson, 45, wore the costume for the 13.1-mile race to raise funds for Action Medical Research, Paddington’s favourite UK charity, in memory of his son Daniel.
Charlie, who’s dressed as an 8ft beer bottle and also as Darth Vader in previous years, took three hours and 42 minutes to complete the course in Newcastle upon Tyne on Sunday, 11 September.
“It took me two-and-a-half-hours as Darth Vader so I was hoping to get round in the same time but this was different - the suit wasn't particularly heavy but it was very, very warm,” he says.
“All the attention was incredible; there were so many high-fives and everyone was coming up to me to take a selfie with me or taking my details so they could sponsor me, and all the parents were pointing me out to their children.”
For more than 60 years Action Medical Research has helped pioneer treatments and ways to prevent disease that have benefited millions of people in the UK and across the world. Research they’ve funded has helped to beat polio in the UK, develop ultrasound in pregnancy, fight meningitis and prevent stillbirths.
Action Medical Research is currently funding research into meningitis, Down syndrome, epilepsy and premature birth, as well as some rare and distressing conditions that severely affect children.
Charlie, of Park Avenue West, was inspired to support the charity after his son Daniel was born 16 weeks early in 2007 and sadly died 10 days later.
To support Charlie’s fundraising, please visit action.org.uk/sponsor/charlespaterson2016
To find out more about the research Action is funding into premature birth, please visit action.org.uk/category/premature-birth
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To download an image of Charlie running as Paddington, please click on the link below:
https://www.action.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/press/charlie_paterson_gnr_paddington.jpg
NOTES TO EDITORS:
For more information on Action Medical Research, please contact Ellie Evans, Fundraising Communications Officer, on:
T 01403 327480
Follow us on Twitter at @actionmedres and @amr_events
Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/actionmedres
Follow us at pinterest/actionmedres
Action Medical Research is a leading UK-wide charity saving and changing children’s lives through medical research. For more than 60 years we’ve helped pioneer ways to prevent disease and develop treatments benefiting millions of people. Our research has helped to beat polio in the UK, develop ultrasound, fight meningitis and prevent stillbirths. But we urgently need to develop more new treatments and cures for sick babies and children and we can’t do it without you.
Join our fight for little lives today.
Charity reg. nos 208701 and SC039284.
About Paddington:
For almost 60 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has been entertaining children and families all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru famous for his love of marmalade. Since the first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published by HarperCollins in 1958, a further 13 full-length novels and countless other formats have been published. Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen. A second Paddington movie, Paddington 2, is set to launch November, 2017. In recognition of Paddington’s extraordinary popularity and success, Michael Bond was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen for services to children’s literature in 1997 and a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2015.
Today, there are over 150 titles available in 40 languages and more than 100 countries, book sales are in excess of 35 million. The Paddington DVD was the fastest and strongest selling DVD of 2015 in the UK. Paddington has a growing online presence with over 600 thousand Facebook fans and over 20 thousand Twitter followers.
In 2016 the Paddington brand was purchased by Studiocanal, part of the Vivendi group.
Follow Paddington on Twitter at @paddingtonbear
Like Paddington’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PaddingtonBear/
Paddington Bear™ © Paddington and Co Ltd/Studiocanal S.A. 2016
Licensed on behalf of Studiocanal S.A. by Copyrights Group