London Marathon runner hailed a hero for helping struggling competitor

A runner at the London Marathon has been hailed a "hero" after stopping 300m from the finish line to help a struggling competitor finish the race.

David Wyeth was having difficulty staying on his feet due to exhaustion as he came around the final corner of yesterday's race.

Matthew Rees came up behind him and decided to stop and help, sacrificing his own chances of clocking a good race time.

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After Wyeth fell to the ground, Rees put his arm around him and gave some words of encouragement, before a steward also came to Wyeth's aid and both men assisted Wyeth over the finish line.

Rees told the BBC: "I came round the final corner and I saw a runner struggling, his legs were collapsing beneath him. Every time he tried to get up, he kept on falling back to the ground.

"I went over to him and said 'come on, you can do this' and tried to gee him up. But every time he tried to get up, I realised he wasn't going to make it," he added. "I said c’mon we can do this, we will do it together, we’ll cross the line together."

In a BBC interview this morning, Wyeth thanked Rees and said he told him to carry on without him.

"I was urging him to move on, you know 'please don't sacrifice your race for me'. But he stuck with me and I think a volunteer also joined me on the other side," he said.

"I got up, they helped me up, and I just tried to keep moving."

The two men finished in a time of two hours, 52 minutes and 26 seconds, putting them in the top 1,000 competitors, says Sky News, which described Rees as a "hero".

After crossing the finish line, Wyeth, who was running in memory of his uncle, was led away for medical assessment.

The viral clip has caused a dramatic spike in donations to Wyeth's JustGiving page with his fundraising total reaching almost £8,000, far beyond his £1,000 goal, which will go to Isabel Hospice.