RUNNING a marathon for charity was the last thing on the minds of millions of New York residents whose lives were devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

But Adam Wheeler, 32, of Sutton Courtenay, was one of the runners who flew out to the Big Apple on Thursday because he did not know the New York City marathon would be cancelled.

Ninety-six deaths were caused by the storm, including 40 in New York, with 19 in Staten Island where the marathon on Sunday was due to start.

After Mr Wheeler arrived in New York, Sunday’s run was cancelled following an announcement by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday.

Mr Wheeler, who works for publisher Elsevier in Kidlington, had hoped to raise £1,000 for care charity Sue Ryder in the race.

Speaking on Saturday on the eve of flying home, he said: “A lot of New Yorkers are suffering at the moment – and my thoughts are with them.

“I’m currently in Park Avenue South, on 28th and Park, an area which did not have power until Friday night.”

Initial plans to go ahead with the marathon had resulted in anger in some parts of the city.

Mr Wheeler added: “I found out it was cancelled on Friday night. “I was taking a cab to a night out with a friend for a meal.

“In New York cabs they have screens in the front part of the cab – and it flashed up to say it was cancelled.

“It was an 11th-hour decision to cancel.

“The decision the New York Mayor made at first meant that a lot of people flew out here.

“I’m hoping for the chance to do it next year or at a later date,” he added.

Mr Wheeler, who stayed at the Park South Hotel, has previously raised money for the NSPCC by running the London Marathon in 2008 and 2009 and was hoping to beat his previous best time of four hours and 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, tourists from Oxfordshire who were stuck in hotels as the deadly storm smashed into New York have returned home safely.

Mum-of-one Clare Colwell, from Risinghurst, went to New York with five schoolfriends, all of whom went to Cheney School, to celebrate their 41st birthdays.

The Oxford Brookes University worker was staying at the Park Central Hotel, close to where a construction crane on top of a $1.5bn luxury high-rise block in Manhattan collapsed in high winds.

She said: “We were quite fortunate in that our hotel did not lose power.”