An accountant has donated more than £13,440 to charity in memory of two colleagues.

Jon O'Shea, 45, partner at Haslers Chartered Accountants in Loughton, successfully ran seven full marathons in Chile, Miami, Madrid, Morocco, Dubai, Australia and Antarctica in the space of seven days in January raising £40,000 for three charities.

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.

Mr O'Shea presented St Clares Hospice with the cheque for £13,443 on Friday.

The remaining £26,557 is set to be divided between Cancer Research UK and the Haslers Foundation.

Mr O'Shea said: “visiting St Clare Hospice to hand over the cheque was an emotional experience for me and it really brought home the importance of the charity for the people who rely on the hospice for care and support.

“St Clare Hospices’ staff do a very tough job, far tougher than running any marathon, and I only hope that this donation will go some way to helping them and the people that they support on a daily basis.”