Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Heroic feet
Runner helps stranger cross line after collapse Thousands raise more than £50m for charities
A RUNNER who was seconds from completing the London Marathon stopped to carry an exhausted fellow competitor over the finish line.
Hero Matthew Rees, 29, was on the home straight when he saw another athlete on the brink of collapsing. David Wyeth’s legs gave way just 150m from the finish line as the exhaustion of the 26-mile race took over his body. David, 35, of the Chorlton Runners, wobbled uncontrollably as other runners raced past, but Matthew, of the Swansea Harriers athletics club, picked up the stranger and carried him to the end. The bank worker, from Swansea, told the Mirror: “I took the final corner and thought, ‘right, I’m nearly done, it’s time to sprint’, then I saw this guy and his legs just crumpled below him. I thought, ‘this is more important. Getting him across the line is more important than my finishing time’.” Both men were on course to complete the race in under three hours and it was Matthew’s second marathon in a month. He claimed lingering tiredness had slowed his initial time. He said: “My calf started to cramp really early on, so I just decided, ‘right I’ve just got to make it to the finish line’ and so when I saw the guy on the floor, it sort of brought the feelings I’d had the whole marathon to me. “So I went over to try to help him and every time he tried to get up he fell down again. I picked him up and said, ‘come on we can do this, we’ll do it together’.” After steadying David and with the help of a steward and the roaring crowd, they carried him down The Mall towards the finish. “He was really grateful but wasn’t very coherent, he just kept saying ‘I want to finish, I want to finish’. I said to him, ‘we will finish, come on we can do this’. “The crowd were brilliant, they were cheering. I just wanted him to get across. “Helping him cross the line made it for me, really. I found out he was running it in memory of his uncle and he really wanted to get to that finish line. “This is what the marathon is about – it’s about people, it’s for everyone. Moments like this make it worth it. "I’m just glad he’s OK.” It was David’s first time running the London Marathon and he was participating in memory of his uncle Alan, who died last year. He raised £2,633 for the Isabel Hospice. A spokesman for his Manchester club said: “The help David received from Matthew at Swansea Harriers summed up what the running community is all about – support and compassion. We can't thank him enough.” Earlier, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry officially