Gary McKee – West Cumbria’s Marra-thon Man
Gary McKee – West Cumbria’s Marra-thon Man. Imagine getting up every single day, irrespective of how well you are feeling physically or emotionally, and knowing you have to get up, get out, and complete a 26-mile marathon followed by a day at work—every day of the year over 365 days.
Just read that back and let it sink in—you would have to be absolutely bananas to even contemplate such a task. Yet, that is exactly what Cleator Moor’s Gary McKee, or “The Marathon Man,” as he is better known, has done during 2022, and in the process he has smashed his target of a million pounds.
In the last twelve months, he has clocked up 9,569 miles—the equivalent of running from the UK to Australia.
Gary set out with the intention of raising a million pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support and West Cumbria Hospice at Home, two charities very close to his heart.
I asked Gary what spurred him on to take on such an audacious task.
“My dad was diagnosed with cancer in 1997; he was a cancer survivor, but he passed away in 2003. I just remember the feeling we had when we were told he had cancer. When he passed away, I wanted to do something in his memory, so I thought back to that day and of people being told the devastating news that we had been told, and I wanted to be able to provide the charities with the funds needed to support those people.”
What drives you? You must have days when you think I’ll just stay in bed.
“No, there isn’t because when you think that 300 people are being diagnosed with cancer every single day, that’s 300 reasons to run and 300 reasons not to stop. I see every day as an opportunity to raise funds and awareness of the charities as well, and also to give people the opportunity to join me and make them better people and fitter, healthier people, but also to understand that by helping themselves, they are also inadvertently helping the charities.”
How do you balance a work life that affects your work life while running consecutive marathons day after day?
“I work on the afternoon shift at Sellafield; I’ve used all my annual leave and I go in after I’ve finished running, normally from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., then come home, sleep, then get up and go again.”
Gary runs the cycle track in Cleator Moor as part of his route, and it is quite stunning, especially when the sun is out. There’s more to the moor than meets the eye, that’s for sure.
Gary said, “It is a stunningly great place to run, and Cleator Moor has the best people and the best community—I wouldn’t live anywhere else because these are salt of the earth people here.”
Macmillan Cancer Support provides cancer support to people who are going through the cancer journey, and West Cumbria Hospice at Home gives end-of-life care to people in their own homes.
Although the racing may have stopped, the fundraising has not.
If you would like to donate to Gary’s chosen charities, then head to his fundraising page at
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/threesixfive
