Exeter School teacher completes London Marathon with broken leg

When Adam Cunningham, Head of Junior School Mathematics, Upper Two form tutor, and Head of CCF RAF at Exeter School, decided to run the London Marathon this year he did not expect to be completing the last 850 metres bottom shuffling along the road. On track for a race time of around 3h26m, he sadly broke his leg with 850m to go. Side stepping a water bottle and landing oddly, he felt a searing pain shoot through his leg and fell to his knees. He then shuffled on his bottom for an hour to cross the finish line with kind support from race marshals protecting him from other runners.

Adam ran the 2024 London Marathon raising money for the British Heart Foundation who do incredible work to support and save the lives of people up and down the country with heart related illness and disease. Adam says: “It is of particular significance to me having lost my grandfather a few years ago to a heart attack following years of issues with his heart. Even more recently and notably, my father has been diagnosed with incurable and significantly life-limiting heart disease. I am inspired and motivated to raise as much as I can for the BHF.”

Despite Exeter School’s ethos to ‘excel beyond expectations’, his colleagues and friends all watched in awe as Adam bound his hands and continued for another hour to cross the finish line with pure determination. He has passed thanks along to parents of pupils at the school, friends and colleagues who are still submitting donations to his Just Giving page which shows he has now smashed his original £2,500 target.

Adam is now proudly sporting a full leg cast with x-rays showing a break with further fractures into the middle of the bone. But he is also sporting that all important finisher’s medal for his hard-earned tribute to his grandfather.

You can watch Adam crossing the finish line on his bottom at 2:54:25 of this video. His Just Giving page is here.