Sam Thompson crosses the marathon finish line in agony after raising £1,500,000

Metro

a day ago

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Sam Thompson was full of emotion as he crossed the finish line of his mammoth 260-mile endurance challenge, which has seen him raise £1.5million for charity.
The Made In Chelsea star, 32, has undergone an impressiv journey transporting the Soccer Aid matchball 60 miles from London's Stamford Bridge to Manchester's Old Trafford ground.
Sam took part in the challenge to raise money for Unicef, which provides aid to children, including health, nutrition, education, and emergency relief.
He has battled through agonising pain to make it to the finish line, after a nasty injury on the first day when he tore his calf muscle.
The podcast host made it to the end on foot, however, and was embraced by his sister Louise, her fiancé Ryan Libbey, and their three-year-old son Leo.
Sam has raised a whopping £1,516,433 for Unicef, sharing his thanks to those who have supported him along the way.
'My legs have completely gone, but I feel good. I'm so grateful for everyone being here, I didn't think anyone would turn up,' he said (per MailOnline).
'To everyone who has donated, I've said it before, but I'll say it a million times, you are so heroic. The money will help so many children, I'm so grateful.'
Speaking to MailOnline, he revealed how he was left 'crying into his physio' when he thought his leg injury meant he could not complete the marathon.
'And just 2km away from the finish line of the first marathon on day one, my calf popped, and when that happened, I remember crying,' he said.
'I was crying into the physio, whose a lovely guy, into his arms pretty much being like: 'I'm not going to be able to do this,' and he went 'I don't know what to tell you, this isn't go away, you're not going to be able to put any weight on it, it's a three-and-a-half, four week recovery period, so I don't know what to tell you, and I just burst into tears. That was a really bad day.'
He has been supported along the way by several famous faces, including Chris Hughes, Jamie Laing, and Staying Relevant podcast co-host Pete Wicks.
Speaking to Metro earlier in the week, Sam shared how he was determined to 'stop crying' when being surprised by his supportive pals along the way.
'I've decided I'm not going to cry anymore. I can't keep crying. I keep crying. I cried like, three times already, and we're on day three!
'It was, I don't know how to describe it. It's, it's one of those things where, because you just don't know it's coming, and you're in a world of pain, and you're just trying to think, 'one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.'
'And then you see somebody who'd been your rock through everything, just at some random junction, like in the middle of the road.
'I can't explain the feeling. It's just like, it's like seeing home when you are miles away.'
He also praised the support fellow reality TV star Laing gave him, who ran his own ultramarathon for Comic Relief.
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'I spoke to him a lot. He's a very good friend of mine. He's been messaging me throughout this, actually, as well. He's really been there for me, and he's obviously been through it himself,' he continued. More Trending
'So I'm so grateful to have him there as well.'
He added that all the people who have come out to support him, along with the money he's raising for an incredible cause, are keeping him going during the tough moments.
'I'm just a vehicle – clearly a bad vehicle because I can't even keep one leg good – but I'm a vehicle for this journey. The journey is all about Unicef. It's all about the kids,' Sam said.
'It's the donors who donate, and the donations that are coming in. Any person who literally donates one pound is the hero of this story. And it's just, it has shocked me just how heroic people are to do this when times are obviously incredibly tough. It just, it's blown me away.'
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