Making great strides for nature

George Cook’s love of nature began on family camping holidays. It really took off when he undertook an internship with the RSPB at Sandwell Valley, where he worked helping visitors discover the magic of nature. This is George’s second marathon, he ran the Birmingham Marathon in 2017 for the RSPB. He finished in 3 hours 40 minutes and raised over £400 for RSPB Sandwell Valley.

“I have wanted to do the London Marathon for over 15 years and applied year on year in the ballot with no luck,” says George. “I then had two surgeries to my right knee and it looked like my days of running marathons might be over. However, in 2025 I was feeling healthy and saw that the RSPB had some spots going for London and I thought I had to apply. Initially, I wanted to race the marathon to the best of my ability, after all I have wanted to do this for so long and probably won’t ever do it again, however the last couple of months of training were plagued by some injuries so I then switched to running in a gull costume. It was only a few weeks ago that I then discovered I might be able to run the world record for the fastest marathon dressed as a bird!”

Mat Powell has also loved nature from a young age, and discovered the RSPB on a visit to RSPB Otmoor where he saw his first Hobby. He ran the London Marathon for the first time in 2024, when he raised funds for Mind.

“Supporting the RSPB feels equally meaningful to me,” says Mat. “I’m deeply passionate about protecting nature and the vital conservation work the RSPB does. I’m proud to help raise awareness of their efforts, as well as the benefits of visiting RSPB nature reserves, where people can experience a rich diversity of wildlife while enjoying the positive impact that time spent in nature has on our mental health and wellbeing.”

Jo Saxby is also no stranger to running for charity. Jo works for Factory Internet, which began supporting the RSPB in 2022 and has undertaken several events to fundraise for the charity, while Jo herself has taken part in runs for the RSPB, Amnesty International and The Neuro Foundation. Jo has likewise loved nature since she was a child, and as a parent has enjoyed the calming respite of the natural world. She was excited to fly the charity vest at such an iconic marathon.

All the runners completed the marathon, which was an amazing achievement.

“The crowds and the atmosphere were just incredible,” says George. “There wasn’t a moment where people weren’t shouting my name and cheering for the gull (although I also heard a fair few ‘go on pigeon/penguin/parrot/swan!’). For the first few kilometres it was going well, I was waving to the crowds, flapping my wings, high-fiving the children, enjoying myself and spirits were high. However, the heat inside the seagull costume soon began to grow. By 10k, I was extremely hot, my heart rate was through the roof and I started to have a bit of a panic. I switched into gull survival mode. I made it though, for the final kilometre I really tried to enjoy the moment and flapped my wings all the way to the finish. I’ll definitely remember that moment forever.”

Mat and Jo also felt the heat. “There was the heat, there was the pain, there were times when I stopped because of cramp BUT there was also a personal best! I took 20 minutes off my 2024 time,” says Mat. “The chants of POWELLY rang out the whole way round, driving me forward to the finish. Knowing that I raised over £3,000 to help nature thrive made all the hard work more worthwhile.”

“I’m still processing the magnitude of running the London Marathon for the RSPB,” says Jo. “It’s not like any other running experience or comparable event that I can think of. I was quite nervous as I had a foot/ankle injury but that held out well, apart from a few twinges to shoot some more adrenalin into me. I held out OK until mile 21, the heat had my heart rate soaring, I couldn’t stomach another gel or more water and was flagging, so I had to dig deep to the finish line, I really wanted to shed a few tears as I finished but I think I was too dehydrated to muster any. I was so happy to hear that everyone finished, and even George the gull too, in that heat, what a LEGEND! I am so honoured to have supported and raised funds for such an amazing charity and help support the very important work they do.”