Runners smash Guinness World Record dressed as tooth and tube of toothpaste in marathon effort for Chorley's Derian House Children’s Hospice

Record-breaking runners Fiona May Beaty and Katie Simpson brushed aside competition when they smashed the Guinness World Record for running the London Marathon dressed as a tooth and a tube of toothpaste.
Fiona May Beaty and Katie SimpsonFiona May Beaty and Katie Simpson
Fiona May Beaty and Katie Simpson

The friends raised more than £2,000 for Derian House Children’s Hospice with their off-the-wall challenge.

They finished in three hours, 51 minutes and gained the titles: fastest marathon dressed as a tooth in the female category and fastest marathon dressed as a toiletry item, also in the female category.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They comfortably broke the former world record of four hours, 15 minutes as a tooth and four hours, 54 minutes as a toiletry item.

Derian House is a cause close to Fiona’s heart, as her good friends are supported by the charity. The dentist from Tyneside, who is friends with the family who use Derian House for respite care, said: “It was an amazing experience. All the way round the crowd were shouting: ‘Go toothpaste… and tooth!’

“The costume was incredibly hot – it was like running in a wedding dress – and in the end I was only wearing a bra underneath the outfit. My patients think I’m mad, but they’ve been behind me the whole way.”

The madcap idea came from Katie, a Cleveland Police officer, who wanted to find a way of building enthusiasm for the event in her children.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The youngsters had lost interest after supporting their mum at the last nine London Marathons, and the world record attempt was an incentive to lure them to the capital.

Getting the costumes past Guinness’ strict criteria was no mean feat. Fiona’s tooth outfit was rejected on the first four attempts on the grounds of it not being rigid enough, not long enough, and not anatomically correct.

But finally, the outfits were signed-off and the runners could start a strict training schedule to ensure they could go the distance in the suits.

Caroline Taylor, at Derian House Children’s Hospice, said: “The money they have raised will make a real difference to children with life-limiting and life-shortening conditions from across the North West and we can’t thank them enough.”

Related topics: