Ex Solider From South Shields Dons Pink Dress For Marathon

24 April 2015, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A former soldier from South Shields is swapping his military uniform for a 6 foot pink dress for the London Marathon this weekend.

Just over a year ago, Colin Plews (also known as @bigpinkdressgnr) found out the dreadful news that a friend of his, Janet Bruce, had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Over the next 12 months he saw the impact the disease had on her, and wanted to do something to help.

He told Capital:
"It's just not a thing you want to see anyone go through.

We sat down and said 'we need to do something'

It's pointless sitting around not doing anything, we need to raise money and stop people getting breast cancer. "

So he's now taking on the mammoth challenge of running the 26 miles of the London Marathon, wearing a 6 foot, 2 stone pink dress!

He's already completed half that distance in it - running the Great North Run in 2014.

Colin's raised almost £6,000 for charity via his JustGiving Page so far, but is hoping he can make that £10,000.

Colin said:
"I haven't done a lot of training in the dress, because let's be honest, I don't really want to be running around the North East in a big ink dress too often!
 
The dress weighs two and a half stone, so we'll see how it goes on the day.

I'm bound to stand out, so people should be able to see me running on the day."