Cumbrian ‘Marathon Man’ wins JustGiving Award after raising £1.1m for charity  

54-year-old Gary McKee from Cleator Moor in Cumbria has been named as the Endurance Fundraiser of the Year at this year’s GoCardless JustGiving Awards, after raising more than £1.1m for charity. 

After having fundraised for more than 20 years, last year, Gary McKee aka Marathon Man, took on his biggest challenge yet and completed 365 marathons in 365 days, to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and Hospice at Home West Cumbria. 

Gary couldn’t attend the awards so Gemma Bell, Marketing Lead at Hospice at Home and Sue McDonald, Fundraising Manager at Macmillan alongside Gary’s friend Amy Caddy, were presented with the award on his behalf by British former Paralympian swimmer, Ellie Simmonds, last night (September 25th) at the Roundhouse in London. Of the award, Gary said: 

 “It’s fantastic to be named as the Endurance Fundraiser of the Year but in my eyes all the finalists are winners and the biggest winners of all are our chosen charities, who with all the money raised will make such a difference to so many people.  

 “It was a shame to miss the awards as I’m taking part in the Grand-to-Grand ultra-race in America but I know everyone will have had a wonderful evening.” 

Television personality, Jamie Laing and radio host, Matt Edmondson hosted the eleventh year of the awards which saw seven winners as well as JustGiving’s Charity of the Year announced at the ceremony. Since JustGiving started in 2001, more than £6 billion has been raised for good causes in more than 180 countries.  

Matt Edmondson said “Getting to co-host the GoCardless JustGiving Awards with Jamie is like finding a double-word score in Scrabble—brilliant and rewarding! Tonight’s finalists have touched us deeply with their stories, and they’re all champions, as far as I’m concerned.” 

The finalists were selected from more than 13,000 nominations by a panel of judges including Radio DJ Rickie Haywood-Williams, actress Angela Griffin, longstanding fundraiser, famous for wearing a charity shop outfit every day for one year, Caroline Jones and President and General Manager of JustGiving, Pascale Harvie and put to a public vote to win. 

The award ceremony was attended by guests including Zoe Hardman, Bill Bailey, Ellie Simmonds, Rickie Haywood-Williams, Angela Griffin, Dean McCullough, Tillie Amartey, Neil Jones, Aimee Fuller and Faye Winter.  

Also in attendance was ultra-athlete, campaigner and TV personality, Josh Patterson who won a Special Recognition Award. 

The award recognises the outstanding contribution of an individual who has made a real impact on the world around them. 

For more than five years Josh has been an avid fundraiser for the Samaritans and in his most recent ‘Run for 1 Million’ challenge Josh ran 76 marathons in 76 cities on consecutive days.   

Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager at JustGiving said: “Huge congratulations to Gary for winning Endurance Fundraiser of the Year. 365 marathons in 365 days, is simply unbelievable, but Gary doesn’t see it like that.     

“Gary’s unwavering dedication to fundraising has inspired so many people across the country to take action, including his daughter Minnie, who made loom bands whist he ran and raised more than one thousand pounds for charity. Minnie’s brilliant fundraising work is a true reflection of Gary’s own commitment and enthusiasm for helping others.    

“Celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments of Gary and some of our other fundraisers and charities at the GoCardless JustGiving Award Ceremony was amazing – they should all be so proud of what they’ve achieved and the impact that they’ve all had.”    

Pat Phelan, MD of UK & Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at GoCardless added: ”I was blown away by the work Gary has done to raise well over £1m for Macmillan Cancer Support and Hospice at Home in West Cumbria. It was an absolute privilege to recognise his achievement at the GoCardless JustGiving Awards Ceremony and I hope it inspires others to start or continue their fundraising journey.” 

For more images visit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15EaxlZERGakGBfAZoC0aa2TiyfUaJTBw?usp=drive_link 

To read more about all the winners please visit https://blog.justgiving.com/2023-justgiving-awards-winners 

NOTES TO EDITOR

For further information contact  press@justgiving.com

*All figures quoted include GiftAid and are accurate at the time of releasing this press release.

Figures quoted relate to fundraising activity on JustGiving only. JustGiving is one of many fundraising platforms that people can choose from when fundraising for events such as the London Marathon.

About JustGiving
JustGiving is the world’s most trusted platform for online giving. We help people raise money for the charities and people they care about the most. In 2000, JustGiving.com began with one simple goal – to enable charities to receive donations online from anywhere in the world. Fast forward 22 years and over £5 billion has been raised for good causes in almost every single country in the world.

JustGiving became part of Blackbaud, the world’s leading cloud software company powering social good in 2017.

To note – JustGiving does not charge a fee on donations but instead operates a voluntary contribution model, meaning people donating can choose to leave a ‘tip’ if they wish. The only non-optional fee is a 1.9% + 30p to cover card payment charges.