A MAN dressed as Forrest Gump has finally completed his 837-mile run from John O’Groats to Lands End - and has raised nearly £10,000 in the process.

Civil servant Ewan Gordon, right, who lives in Brashfield Road, Bicester, ran the length of Great Britain over 42 days to raise money in memory of nine-year-old Thomas Laurie. He met Thomas’ parents Cath and Richard Laurie five years ago through the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Causeway.

Thomas passed away on February 19 at Oxford’s Helen and Douglas House hospice last year after a battle with Cockayne Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes premature ageing.

The 43-year-old has raised just under £9,200 so far, in which he dressed up as Forrest Gump from the Tom Hanks film.

The money will go towards the Helen and Douglas House Hospice in Oxford, as well as Lifelites, which donates electronic equipment to hospices, and Rosy (Respite nursing for Oxfordshire’s Sick Youngsters) , based in Kidlington.

After completing the challenge on Sunday, Mr Gordon said: “The run was well planned out but it had its moments.

“I managed to wear out two pairs of trainers, and the shopkeeper I bought my new pair from couldn’t believe I had ruined them so quickly.

Mr Gordon ran an average of 26 miles a day – the length of a marathon – to complete the challenge and ran over 38 miles on one occasion.

Mr Gordon is now planning on cycling the reverse route.

To donate visit justgiving.com/Ewan-Gordon6