Man runs D-Day marathon for veterans charity

Ricardo Sousa hoped to raise £1,000 for Holidays for Heroes

A Jersey man ran the D-Day Landings Marathon in Normandy to raise money for a charity that supports veterans.

Ricardo Sousa, 40, took up running a couple of years ago and wanted to see if he could complete a marathon distance while supporting a local charity.

As well as money he wanted to raise awareness about Holidays for Heroes, which funds trips for veterans to visit Jersey.

Mr Sousa said the experience was "amazing" and "the atmosphere was fantastic".

The Normandy Running Festival saw 25,000 people take part in the six races including the marathon

The race on Sunday passed key locations and memorials relating to the D-Day landings in Normandy during World War Two, with the 80th anniversary of the landings due to be marked on Thursday.

Mr Sousa finished the 26.2 mile (42.16km) course in three 3 hours 31 minutes and 58 seconds.

He said: "There are so many people just helping runners along and then we had a fly by with four bombers passing about 10 kilometres in, which was pretty impressive."

Mr Sousa added that he didn’t want to "let people down" and that was at the "forefront of my mind".

So far he has raised £750 but with donations still to come he said he was set to beat his target of £1,000.

Holidays for Heroes said no one had ever done anything like this for the charity before

Richard Harwood, from Holidays for Heroes Jersey, said: "We’ve not had anyone volunteer to do this before and I think it’s a spectacular marathon to do because of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings."

He said it costed "about £1,000 per veteran" to come to the island and the charity brought about 300 veterans to the island every year.

Mr Hardwood said the charity was incredibly grateful for Mr Sousa’s efforts.