Inside the Big Issue: Christopher Eccleston’s marathon feat

When actor Christopher Eccleston said he wanted to celebrate turning 60 by running the London Marathon for Big Issue, we were delighted. Now, after completing the course in a gruelling five hours, 21 minutes and 20 seconds, he has paid tribute to the more than 570 sponsors who have helped raise more than £13,000 so far for Big Issue Group to continue our vital work.

Less than 15 minutes after he had crossed the finish line and had an emotional reunion with his children, Albert and Esme, Big Issue ambassador Christopher Eccleston, 60, sat down with us to talk about why he was so moved by the response.

“I get so emotional when people sponsor me,” he said. “I’ve looked at the sponsorship page every day. Some people put in incredible amounts of money and some people put in just what they can afford. And everything is equal. It has been very, very moving, what people have done. Some people have only been able to afford a pound – we’re in such tough times – but they’ve done it.”

Before the race, Christopher Eccleston had received messages of support from actors including David Thewlis and Billie Piper, who said: “Run, Chris. Run for your life!” before explaining (for those who needed it), “that was one of his first lines to Rose Tyler in Doctor Who”. And Big Issue vendor (and fellow actor) Clive Rowe thanked him for “representing The Big Issue and all us vendors”. 

Support around the course was strong. And there were emotional scenes as Eccleston ran down the home straight, past Buckingham Palace and up The Mall. “I was worried that my legs were actually going to seize up and I’ve never had that in a marathon before,” said the actor, who had last completed the distance a decade earlier. 

“I felt like they were going. My breathing was fine, and mentally I was fine. But to be conscious of heavy legs from 11 miles in is tough. During that last mile I kept thinking, ‘I can’t wait for this to stop.’

“What gets you around is the sponsorship. We are trying to get people off the streets. We’re trying to get a roof over their heads and we’re trying to lift them out of poverty.” 

We celebrate his remarkable feat in this week’s Big Issue, on sale from your local vendor.

What else is in this week’s Big Issue?

How many Milton Keyneses will it take to fix the housing crisis?

For some the words ‘new town’ make the mind’s eye picture concrete carbuncles, others a bygone atomic-age dream of collective living. But decades after Milton Keynes, Stevenage and Bracknell were sprung from the earth in the wake of World War II, looking to our past could soothe the UK’s very modern housing crisis. Does our salvation lie in new towns?

Visit the community fighting back against regeneration that threatens them with homelessness

Earlier this year, Southwark resident Aysen Dennis’s one-woman crusade against the demolition of her council estate successfully thwarted plans for the Aylesbury estate to be levelled – for now. That high court ruling also lit a fire almost 200 miles away in Runcorn, Cheshire. Residents of the Uplands Residents Group are fighting the regeneration of their own estate, fearing that the number of homes delivered will be fewer than currently exist. They wrote in to the Big Issue to ask us to meet them

Meet James Timpson: the man with the key to high street renewal

James Timpson is the CEO of his family business, founded in 1865, and now spanning more than 2,000 shops where shoes are fixed, keys are cut and watches are repaired. Timpson is an unusual kind of boss. He talks about the value of kindness in running a firm, doesn’t look at CVs and campaigns for prison reform. In fact, over 10% of Timpson’s employees are ex-offenders. He believes work can turn lives around. Read more in this week’s issue.