Sara Cox has revealed she’s now barely able to walk after completing her epic 135-mile Children In Need challenge, with the fundraising total surging to an incredible £10 million.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter, 50, finished her Great Northern Marathon Challenge last week after trekking from the Scottish border to Pudsey in Leeds over five punishing days, effectively running five marathons in five days.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast today, she admitted she’d massively overestimated how quickly she’d bounce back, joking that she’d expected to spend the weekend taking the dogs for a ‘gentle walk.’
Instead, she confessed: ‘I can’t really walk! I had to put the Crocs on, and even that was a squeeze. I had to really wrestle my Crocs on because my feet have a lot of fluid on them.’
She compared the post-challenge exhaustion to the wiped-out feeling at the end of a bad flu, saying she currently feels completely drained.
Sara’s ordeal has been matched only by the extraordinary public support she’s received.
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During the challenge, she broke down in tears mid-week after learning she’d already raised over £1million. By the time she crossed the finish line around 3.30pm on Friday, supporters had donated £7.6 million, with the total now soaring beyond £10 million.
‘Our £10 million is the fivers, tenners, and twenties of Radio 2 listeners and Children In Need supporters who have each individually given their hard-earned cash,’ she said. ‘It means the absolute world.’
Moments after finishing the challenge last week, Sara told co-host Scott Mills that the entire endeavour had been a ‘really silly idea,’ laughing despite looking utterly spent.
She called it ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever done’ and admitted: ‘I’ve never known pain like it. It was bitterly cold and wet and filthy.’
She added that her legs look like she’s ‘been hit with a bat all along my shins,’ describing the swelling, bruising, and fluid build-up as ‘hideous.’
Despite the agony, Sara said the public kept her going: truck drivers honking their horns, farmers stopping work to say hello, children cheering from the roadside, and families offering their homes when she needed a toilet break.
For now, though, she’s sticking to Crocs and rest — and leaving the dog walks behind for a while.
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