A man has celebrated raising £40,000 for charity in memory of two colleagues.

Jon O'Shea, 45, a partner at Haslers Chartered Accountants in Loughton, successfully ran full marathons in Chile, Miami, Madrid, Morocco, Dubai, Australia and Antarctica in the space of seven days last month.

Living just off of airplane food the runner, who initially set out to raise £50,000, completed the races in memory of colleagues, chairman Martin Anderson, 57, and Charlotte James, 22.

The accountant celebrated his success last week by throwing a party to thank all of the people that donated money for chosen charities St Clare Hospice, Teenage Cancer Trust and Haslers Foundation.

Mr O'Shea presented jerseys he had worn during the races to his sponsors John Grummitt, Bancroft Limited, Framework (Specialist Works) Limited and One E Group Limited.

He said: “When I first set out to take part in this event I never thought I would receive the level of support that I ended up getting.

“Knowing so many people had dug deep to help raise such a substantial amount of money for such worthy causes really helped me to get through the harder sections of the challenge.

“I hope that the money I have raised through this event will go some way to helping those with cancer and will one day help to find a cure for this horrible disease."