A FUNDRAISER has been rubbling shoulders with celebrities and is hoping to win a national award after seeing his good work recognised.
Emon Choudhury and his nephew Jamiul were crowned winners of BBC Two's Race Across the World that gripped the nation at the start of the first lockdown in 2020.
Emon, of Saltaire, has been taking part in a series of running challenges over the last two years - including last weekend's London Marathon - to raise funds for a host of good causes.
He has raised more than £100,000 to build a school for disadvantaged children in Nepal. He is raising funds for an orphanage in Bangladesh, which was set up by his late father 40 years ago. Emon raises funds for the Epilepsy Action charity after hearing about their work as he took part in the Bradford 10k month.
His fundraising efforts have now been recognised after he was named as one of two Yorkshire winners in the ITV Calendar region for the Fundraiser Award 2022 for the Pride of Britain Awards.
Emon now goes through to battle the winners of the other regional winners and will find out if he has been crowned the national winner at the Pride of Britain Awards, held in London on Monday, October 24.
Meanwhile, Emon rubbed shoulders with a host of stars at last weekend’s London Marathon.
Emon took pre-run selfies with actor Michelle Keegan, her husband Mark Wright and boxing superstar Anthony Joshua.
Emon’s marathon run was hampered by an injury as he was forced to walk the final stages after suffering a recurrence of a foot injury, meaning he completed the London event in a time of five-and-a-half hours last Sunday.
He says he is shocked and humbled to have won the regional Pride of Britain award.
He said: “It feels incredible. I was absolutely stunned.
“It is crazy and mad to win the regional award. I’m completely lost for words.
“The Pride of Britain Awards has had incredible people doing amazing things over the years.
“I’m a little bit worse for wear after the London Marathon.”
Emon completed a 200k challenge during Ramadan last year by doing separate runs of between 5km and 10km each day, initially going along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath between Saltaire and Bingley.
He kept to Ramadan requirements of fasting during the day for these events and completed each of his runs from around 6pm.
Go to justgiving.com/fundraising/runemonrun to make a donation.
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