ALTON Runners athlete Diego Maldonado was one of a team of 12 from the club to run this year’s London Marathon, completing it in a challenging time of three hours 33 minutes to raise more that £650 to support earthquake victims in his home country of Ecuador.

For Diego, this year’s marathon turned out to be a personal crusade. While he has lived on and off in the UK for 16 years he came from Ecuador where his people have just endured the worst earthquake since 1987.

Fortunately, his family and friends, who live in a tight-knit community, have all survived but when wife Vicky woke him to tell him the news on April 16 his heart sank.

As the days followed and the death toll rose to 650 with hundreds still missing, Diego decided to use his London Marathon run to raise funds to help the victims.

Six months previously he had run the Galapagos Islands Marathon in Ecuador and visited family, so he knew what he was up against in London.

His fundraising campaign then took off in earnest, with his two children, Luis, 9, and Sofia, 6, encouraging fellow pupils at The Butts School to wear shorts to school for the day to raise £271 for the fund.

And since managing to get onto the live BBC television broadcast during the marathon, Diego’s fundraising total has now risen to around £650.

And tomorrow Diego’s wife, Vicky, and her friends are organising a salsa night in aid of the earthquake fund at the Alton Maltings Centre, from 7pm-11pm, complete with a DJ and dancers.

Everyone is welcome to attend, said Diego..

To support Diego’s Ecuador earthquake appeal, visit the website gofundme.com/2wh4rwes and search Terremoto de Ecuador by Diego Maldonado.