A CHARITY boss is to visit Southampton on an epic tour, which will see him run the equivalent of five marathons in under three weeks.
James McLaughlin, the chief executive of Cure Leukaemia, is already under way on his 'Tour of the TAP 2022'.
He is back on the road visiting colleagues at 12 UK blood cancer centres the charity supports and aiming to raise £25,000.
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University Hospital Southampton will be his final stop on Friday September 23, before he takes on the streets of the capital on Sunday October 2 in the London Marathon.
James, who was Head of Sales at Southampton Football Club between 1999 and 2003, told the Daily Echo: "To make the challenge even more ‘interesting’ this year, I have added the London Marathon on top of the 168km I am due to run in the next 14 days across the 12 blood cancer centres."
James was greeted by Saints legends Matt le Tissier and Franny Benali at St Mary's Stadium as he neared the end of a 100 mile plus charity run last November.
He raised an incredible £25,000 for Cure Leukaemia, topping the £20,000 boost from the 2020 'Tour of the TAP', which was done virtually due to the pandemic.
Cure Leukaemia provides funding to all 12 centres on the running tour via the Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP). Prior to Southampton, James will stop at two London hospitals, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Belfast, Glasgow, Oxford and Cardiff.
The Trials Acceleration Programme enables pioneering new clinical trials to open and in turn provide pioneering new treatments for blood cancer patients across the UK.
James will be running 14km around each centre to raise awareness that every 14 minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer in the UK.
Support the fundraising at justgiving.com/campaign/tourofthetap2022
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