Paramedic to Run 26 Marathons in London for Charity

When I put through a call to Ray Edensor on his mobile, I'd no idea he was in the middle of a marathon. "I'm just passing the Cutty Sark," he said. "Running past it?" I said. "Sorry, I'll call you back later."

Ray was in Greenwich on the first of the 26 marathons he's running on consecutive days for the children's charity Dreams Come True.

"You didn't even sound out of breath," I said when we spoke later, and it was true. He might have been relaxing on a park bench.

"You don't just get out of the pub and run 26 marathons," he laughed.

His point being that it takes a lot of training - mental even more than physical - to prepare to run the London Marathon course every single day for the best part of a month.

The 48-year-old Stafford paramedic trains for an average of four-and-a-half hours a day, which is why the word "superfit" often precedes the name of the big-hearted athlete they call The Running Paramedic.

And Ray doesn't believe in going easy on his body. He's running all 26 marathons, culminating in the 2006 London Marathon itself, in his paramedic's uniform with a 26lb rucksack on his back.

Christian martyrs have put themselves through less.

Ray does it because he's passionate about helping sick children. Dreams Come True, for which he has already raised more than £140,000, arranges special treats for children with life-limiting illnesses.

He works in a profession that has brought him into contact with heartbreaking cases involving young children.

"When you have been in the ambulance service for 25 years, you learn to count your blessings," he says.

"I have two healthy children, but I've seen so many tragic cases that I feel the need to do something, to put something back."

He certainly seems driven by compassion, which is probably why his wife Gail - they've been married for 19 years - tolerates his long absences.

"She knows it's something I have to do."

Ray and Gail, who runs her own mobile hairdressing business, live in Castlefields, Stafford, with 16-year-old Jade and her nine-year-old brother Liam.

"Being away from the family is the hardest thing," says Ray. "I'm not lonely because I have the support team with me, but I do get homesick."

The family were briefly reunited on Friday when Ray travelled up from London to be presented to The Queen during her visit to Stafford, as part of celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of the granting of the county town's Royal Charter.

But that flying visit didn't get Ray out of his commitment to a marathon-a-day. He returned to London and ran Friday's marathon in the evening.

Ray was born in Stafford and has lived in the town all his life. His father was a fishmonger in Mill Street for 60 years, and Ray was the oldest of four children - three boys and a girl.

He admits to being an unremarkable scholar.

"To be honest, I could take it or leave it," he says. "I didn't do so well at school because I messed about too much. I liked some sports, though, especially football."

He worked with his father in the fishmongers before finding what can only be described as his true vocation - the ambulance service.

"I've now done 25 years with the service, three with the air ambulance," he says.

"I've had terrific support from the service for my charity work. They've been really supportive."

Some of the punishing stunts he has undertaken for charity seem to verge on the masochistic: last year he ran from Hanley to London wearing a nuclear decontamination suit.

"I don't know how many thousands of miles I've run for charity in the past 10 years, and I can't tell you how many pairs of trainers I've got through in that time, either."

Ray is in London for a total of 27 days. He and the support team are staying on a caravan park at Abbey Wood, 15 minutes from Greenwich. Every day, he dons his uniform and a mask to protect him from fumes, and runs the course which he and 30,000 others will tackle when the London Marathon proper is run on April 23.