Katie Ventress, 26, and her father Mike Ventress, 59, have been rubbing shoulders with celebrities after securing a VIP place in the London marathon by raising thousands of pounds in last year’s race.

This was the second time the pair have run the marathon with Mike clocking up a time of 4hrs 58 mins and Katie crossing the finishing line after 5hrs 39 mins, a moment she remembers well.

Katie said: “It felt fantastic, really emotional, I nearly cried because all the pain was over.

The atmosphere was amazing especially during the last few miles. We had our names printed on our T-shirts and everyone was shouting out our names to push us on.”

The pair were running in memory of 21-year-old Mark Ventress, Katie’s brother and Mike’s son, who died two years ago after a long battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the blood.

Katie and Mike have raised more than £11,000 for the Leukemia Fund since Mark died and plan to continue in their fundraising efforts next year, although Katie, who works as an actress in London, is not sure she will be doing another marathon so soon.

“I have been training and dancing at the same time so next year I’m going to have a break for a bit. We will do something else for charity but maybe something not as big as this next year,” she added.