EXCLUSIVE: Charlie Quirke on running the London Marathon for his mum Pauline Quirke

"It’s funny, I actually hate running! But since we went public with my mum’s dementia diagnosis last year, the family have become ambassadors for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Mum has always been such a selfless, charitable person, so I reluctantly agreed to run as part of a team with some of my loved ones, who all love my mum, too.'

"My fiancée Chloe, my lifelong friends Cey and James, and Andy Knott, who lives at the bottom of my mum and dad’s road and is a great role model to me. Then there’s Luke Roskell, who worked with my mum on Emmerdale, and Adam Long (Happy Valley) and Jack O’Connell (Skins), who are also close mates. I’m looking forward to being with them all on the start line. That’s when it’s really going to hit me!"

"I’m living in a constant state of aches and pains! It’s a bit masochistic, especially as I did a 153km walk in December for Alzheimer’s Research UK too! But it’s kind of become part of my life, what with all the gear and the gels and the tape in weird places. It’s so time consuming and I’ve moaned a lot – I do like a moan, though!"

"I’m quite goal driven, so I’d love to do sub four hours. But I’m not going to cry if I don’t achieve that. Although I’ll be crying no matter what! I cry all the time at the moment, especially with all the donations coming in. People are putting in whatever they can afford and that’s quite emotional. Even Andy Knott’s daughter, who’s only 17, put £20 in. I’m sure she’d rather have spent that money on make-up or something. The fact that people care has really hit home."

"It has. But it’s been way more than we ever expected. I get daily messages from people saying how much they adore her. Doing the marathon will be hard, but it’s paid me back tenfold already, not just financially for the charity, but also in terms of feeling the love out there for Mum. People are also sharing their own experiences of dementia and that’s really important to us as a family."

"Yeah, I do. When Mum got her MBE in 2022 it wasn’t just for services to entertainment, it was for her charitable actions, too. If I can raise awareness and funding and help other families then maybe that’s the light that comes from it all. And if Mum could come and watch me run I know she would. She came to all my football games as a kid. She was always there with the tea urn, making bacon rolls and handing out jelly babies. If she could be involved in the marathon that’s exactly what she’d be doing!"

"Hopefully I’ll get a boost from the crowd – and I’ll be looking forward to a pint or two at the end. But apart from that and all my gels and energy bombs, at the end of the day I’m running the marathon for my mum, so I’m going to carry a little photo of her as well. That’s going to get me across the finish line."