A former Royal Marine from Bedwas has completed a marathon on his driveway to raise money for the NHS.

Ashley Pole, 31, completed the 26 miles in four hours and 40 minutes on Friday, April 17.

His online donation page has currently raised more than £300 for NHS Charities Together, while he also had a collection bucket outside his driveway for passers-by.

Mr Pole had intended to run Tenby Marathon in July, but the event has been cancelled following the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking after completing his challenge, he said: “After the Tenby Marathon was cancelled, I decided to complete a marathon at home and it’s for a great cause.

“The NHS are doing a great job working around the clock so the least I could do was run and raise money for them.

“I decided to do it about a week ago, so I’ve had very little time to prepare. I run a fair bit but I haven’t run a full marathon distance in a long time.”

He told Caerphilly Observer that running laps of his driveway posed a different challenge to a standard race.

“Running on the drive was definitely harder for me and up until mile 20 was really tough mentally. I couldn’t really build up a decent pace because of the amount of turns I had to make, which were hard on the ankle.

“The support I have had from everyone has been great. I’m very thankful to the local community, my friends and family, and to my mum for all the cups of tea she made me.”