PARALYMPIAN and gold medallist at London 2012 Richard Whitehead MBE brought some of that golden magic to Okehampton last week, as he passed through the town as part of a gruelling charity challenge.

Richard, who won the 200 metres at his home Paralympic Games, ran through Okehampton last Thursday as part of 'Richard Whitehead Runs Britain', a gruelling challenge to complete 40 marathons in 40 days from John O'Groat's to Lands' End.

The night before he passed through Okehampton, he appeared on Channel 4's The Last Leg to promote the charity campaign. By taking on the challenge, Richard is hoping to raise £1-million for disability charity Scope and cancer charity Sarcoma.

For any able-bodied athlete, this challenge would be testing enough, but Richard runs with prosthetic legs, as he has had a double above-knee congenital amputation.

He holds the world record for athletes with a double amputation in both the full and half marathon.

At London 2012, he was unable to compete in the marathon as there was no category for leg amputees, and he was refused permission by the IPC to compete against upper-body amputees. He turned his hand to sprinting to compete at the 2012 Paralympics, where he duly won the gold medal in the 200 metres T42 with a world record time of 24.38 seconds.

The Richard Whitehead Runs Britain challenge was inspired by Canadian athlete Terry Fox, a single leg amputee who ran 3,339 miles across Canada in 1980 before he was overwhelmed by cancer.

Fox's original run inspired the annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, which has raised more than $500-million Canadian dollars in his name.

To find out more about the challenge and how you can donate, visit http://www.richardwhiteheadrunsbritain.com">www.richardwhiteheadrunsbritain.com