Spinal cord injury man completes London marathon recordRSS Feed

A former army major who suffered serious spinal cord injuries in Iraq has completed the London marathon, beating his previous record at the event by 13 days.

Phil Packer, 37, completed this year's race in 25 hours and 55 minutes, raising large amounts of money for charity in the process.

He dedicated each mile to a different charity, with a support walker from each charity joining him along the way before all coming together at the end to see him over the last 365 yards of the race.

As he crossed the finishing line in record time, Mr Packer joked: "I think you could say this is some improvement."

The achievement was all the more impressive as Mr Packer had to stop just once for physiotherapy during the race.

A record number of people completed this year's London marathon, with more than 36,000 competitors crossing the finishing line.

The Ethiopian athlete Tsegaye Kebede became the first non-Kenyan since 1993 to win the men's race, crossing the line just nine seconds outside the course record in a time of 2:05:19.

Serious Law, leading spinal cord injury solicitors

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