Dynamic MP set for marathon challenge (From Dudley News)

Dynamic MP set for marathon challenge

4:50pm Monday 16th April 2012 in O-P

DYNAMIC Dudley South MP Chris Kelly is among runners from across the borough set to pound the streets for charity in this weekend’s London Marathon.

Mr Kelly will be taking part in the 26-mile road race on Sunday April 22 in aid of two borough charities that are close to his heart.

The 33-year-old Conservative MP hopes to give a £500 boost to the DGoH charity, which funds medical equipment and specialist staff training to improve patient care at Dudley’s hospitals, and Dudley’s Action Heart charity which helps people across the borough with heart problems.

His support of the latter follows a visit to Action Heart’s base at Russells Hall Hospital last year with Health Minister Simon Burns MP but it also has a more poignant, personal significance.

Mr Kelly added: “My grandfather, also Chris Kelly, was a local policeman and died prematurely of a heart attack in 1979 when I was one-year-old so it's an important cause for me.”

The energetic MP, an experienced runner who has been known to take part in the borough’s popular Wordsley Fun Run, hopes to complete the course in less than five hours.

He said: “I will be delighted if I come in under four-and-a-half hours.

“The training is going well - my legs are feeling stronger than ever although my ankles are rather sore.”

Anyone wishing to sponsor Mr Kelly can do so online at www.justgiving.com/ChrisKellyMP-ActionHeart or www.JustGiving.com/ChrisKellyMP