A trio of Birmingham charities will receive donations worth over £15,000 after three local businessmen completed this year’s Tokyo Marathon. Hollywood Monster’s Tim Andrews and Phil McKenzie, and Alan Sarjant from Prologis completed the famous 26-mile race to raise money for local causes.

The businessmen travelled out to Tokyo for the race on 22 February and joined over 35,000 fellow runners. After successfully completing the race they have now returned to Birmingham with donations worth over £15,000, which will go to Alzheimer’s Society, Edward’s Trust and LoveBrum.

Ahead of the race, Turkish Airlines pledged its support for the challenge, helping Tim Andrews realise his Japanese dream. Admittedly not as fit as he once was, Andrews completed the race in a respectable time of just over five hours (5:02:27 official time) and smashed his £5,000 target for LoveBrum, the charity recently launched to unearth ‘hidden gem’ projects that help make Birmingham a better place. Upon his return, Andrews commented:

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the support I’ve received for the Tokyo Marathon. When I first signed up, I hoped to raise around £5,000 for LoveBrum but have, so far, had donations worth over £6,000 and there’s still more to come in. Knowing that I had the city of Birmingham behind me was a great help, particularly for the latter miles of the race when I started to struggle. This is the perfect opportunity for me to thank each and every person who has donated; whether £1 or £1,000 every penny will go towards helping the local community. I covered all travel costs, with the help of Turkish Airlines, so all of the money raised will go directly to LoveBrum.”

The ninth annual Tokyo Marathon, the event has become famed for welcoming large numbers of domestic and international runners. Organisers, Tokyo Marathon Foundation, pride themselves on hosting an event that symbolises Tokyo’s past, present and future. The event attracts over 1.7 million people, is run by 10,000 volunteers, and also acts as the Selection Race for Japan’s men’s marathon representatives for the 15^th IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

“I was lucky enough to spend some time in Japan following the race and what a place it is! Tokyo, in particular is friendly, clean and efficient; they gave all runners a wonderful welcome and really made us feel at home. It reminded me of Birmingham, in a way, with the friendly and approachable nature of people who live in Tokyo. I think we can also learn a lot from the Japanese; they show real passion for their city and get behind citywide initiatives like the marathon, which as a band of Brummies we could do a lot more. The people of Tokyo love and respect their fellow residents and surroundings, which is in line with LoveBrum; it’s all about recognising the hard-working and dedicated people who aim to make the city better. I’m glad that I’ve experienced Tokyo and can now bring some of those learnings back for LoveBrum,” Andrews concluded.

All of the money raised by LoveBrum stays right here in Birmingham and with lean running costs sponsored by corporate members, all of the money raised goes directly to the causes. In its first year, LoveBrum will promote 40 causes and raise a minimum of £120,000 to fund 12 projects. All of these projects must have tangible outcomes and will be voted for by LoveBrum members. The first two charities to benefit from funding were announced last month as the Lily Mae Foundation and the Sampson Road Residents Association, which will receive a total of £7,000 financial support between them.

Tim Andrews has become one of the region’s leading corporate fundraisers, driving major charity events and being part of the team that launched the 7inSeven cycle initiative in 2013. He was also awarded a West Midlands Pride Award at the Business Masters 2013, and has completed a number of marathons, 10k races and sporting challenges in the past few years.

If you’d like to support Tim’s Tokyo Marathon, you can donate via www.indiegogo.com/projects/tim-does-tokyo-for-lovebrum.