The London Marathon raises as much money collectively for charity as the other four major world marathons combined, according to a report by Charities Aid Foundation.

According to a survey done by CAF, the London Marathon raised over £53m in 2014, meaning that each of the 27,600 runners individually raised around £1,900. While the London Marathon raises the most money collectively, Boston Marathon runners raise the most money for charity individually with just over 3,000 runners in 2014 raising over £25m – an average of £8,100 per runner.

In 2014, 48 per cent of the London Marathon field fundraised for medical charities like Anthony Nolan, the official charity of last year’s marathon. Another 20 per cent of the field fundraised for hospitals and hospice charities, while 16 per cent ran for organisations supporting children and young people.

CAF’s survey also suggests that the popularity of the marathon plays a big part in one-fifth of Britons raising money for charity through running at some point in their lives.

Deborah Fairclough, head of research at CAF, said: “The spikes in giving which we see around some of these big fundraising events clearly demonstrate their ability to stir up people's enthusiasm for good causes, mobilising huge numbers to get involved, whether as a runner, a sponsor or a road-side supporter.

“Not only is the London Marathon one of the greatest sporting jamborees on the globe, it is also one of the world's greatest fundraising events.”

Virgin Money Giving early figures

A spokesman for Virgin Money Giving has released initial figures for the amount of money raised by runners through the not-for-profit in the marathon.

As of yesterday evening, £18.4m has been raised by over 15,000 people who registered fundraising pages with Virgin Money Giving for various charities.

According to the spokesman more donations are coming in all the time and the exact amount raised will not be known for a few weeks yet.