Marathon feat

Running the London Marathon is a major achievement for anybody, but taking part on crutches raises the achievement to another level.

Engineering student Peter Snell was all set to run for the charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), and had secured pledges of 4,500, when he broke his ankle during a training run just two months before the race. Still determined to compete, he asked the charity if it could help. The best option seemed to be for Snell to 'run' the race on crutches, using his good foot and the crutches to swing himself forward. But clearly, normal crutches wouldn't do.

After a fruitless search for racing crutches, CRY put him in touch with REMAP, an organisation which designs and constructs customised technological aids for the disabled. REMAP works through a network of volunteer engineers, and the task of designing Snell's crutches was entrusted to Harry Thomson, a former RAF engineer who now runs Top Flight Tasking, an Oxfordshire company that makes remote-controlled vehicles for use in bomb disposal and the nuclear industry.