Runners in yesterday's London Marathon have so far raised nearly £20m through JustGiving, the fundraising platform has announced - an 18 per cent increase on last year's figure.
A spokeswoman for JustGiving told Civil Society News that a full list of figures would be released in the next week or so.
JustGiving said marathon runners had raised just over £19.5m, compared with just under £16.5m at the same point last year.
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK, the official charity of the Virgin Money London Marathon, has reportedly already raised £2.4m of its overall £2.5m target with donations still coming in.
Cancer Research UK fielded its largest ever team in yesterday’s marathon, with over 2,000 people running on behalf of the organisation. Celebrities who ran for the charity included Formula 1 driver Jensen Button and television presenter Jenni Falconer.
Two runners for the charity, Paul and Laura Elliot, also got married en-route to the marathon’s finishing line.
The money raised by CRUK runners will be used to fund the Francis Crick Institute, the construction of which is due to be completed in late 2015.
Helen Jackson, head of sports at Cancer Research UK, said: “We knew that the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon was going to be a huge year for Cancer Research UK as the official charity.
“We set ourselves the ambitious target of £2.5 million and I’m so thrilled that we are on track to beat it.”
Macmillan Cancer’s provisional fundraising results
A spokeswoman for Macmillan Cancer has also provided Civil Society News with some initial fundraising figures from yesterday’s marathon.
The charity’s 892 registered runners have raised over £500,000, with more donations reportedly coming in all of the time.
Virgin Money Giving stats
Virgin Money Giving has called this year’s marathon the “largest in its 35-year history”, with over 37,500 runners crossing the finishing line, nearly 1000 more than last year.
Over 15,000 people created fundraising pages for the marathon using Virgin Money Giving, an increase of 9 per cent from last year.
Virgin Money Giving's top individual fundraiser has raised over £50,000 already, including gift aid. With 15 per cent of donations likely to come in after the event, this figure is set to rise.
A spokesman for Virgin Money Giving said that more complete data and figures would be released in the coming weeks.
This story originally said donations through JustGiving were up around 25 per cent year-on-year. JustGiving has now released more accurate figures in order to show the increase was 18 per cent.
