Edinburgh estate agent Mark Coulter to run 5 marathons in 5 days for Doddie Weir's MND charity

An Edinburgh estate agent is challenging himself to run not one but five marathons this week to help raise vital funds for a city charity.

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Mark Coulter, founder and director of Ellisons Property in the Capital and east central Scotland, will travel a total distance of 131 miles over the next five days to raise money for Doddie Weir’s Motor Neurone Disease charity, the MY NAME’5 DODDIE foundation.

And while running five marathons in the same number of days would be a challenge for anyone, Mark is taking on the challenge despite having no running experience.

Mark Coulter is running five marathons in five days

“Everyone who knows me knows that I am no marathon runner,” said Mark, who is also the creator and former chief executive of Coulters Property.

“Hell I am not even a runner but that isn’t the point and this challenge isn’t about me. It’s about the horrific disease MND and the fact that there is no known cure.”

Motor Neurone Disease is a rare disease which sees cells in the brain and nerves, known as motor neurones, stop working. It is known as the 1,000 day disease as the life expectancy of sufferers is usually around three years from the onset of symptoms.

Mark initially set out to raise £2,000 for the charity, which was set up by former rugby union player Doddie Weir who went public with his MND diagnosis in 2017, after having been diagnosed the year before.

Mr Weir vowed, through his charity, to never give up fighting for sufferers of MND and has so far gone on to raise millions which has gone towards funding research into the disease.

The charity also provides grants to individuals suffering from MND, to enable them to live as fulfilled a life as possible.

Mark has surpassed his initial target and yesterday, on the first day of his challenge, his total amount raised was £2,800.

“Hopefully, my small contribution will go some way to changing that and defeating this horrible disease which causes so much pain to individuals and their families,” he said.

Anyone wishing to donate and support Mark’s Doin it for Doddie challenge, can do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-coulter6.

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