A Labour MP will run the London Marathon in tribute to his older brother, who died last year from a rare cancer.
Josh Fenton-Glynn will run the 26.2 miles through the capital in memory of his brother, Alex English, who died in January 2025 just two weeks short of his 53rd birthday.
The Calder Valley MP is among a host of parliamentarians from across the political spectrum who are taking on the challenge this year.
This will be his seventh marathon, and his second London Marathon after completing the race last year.
But this year’s personal cause is particularly striking, Mr Fenton-Glynn said.
“I do a lot of things I do in life because I believe in people, I care about people, but there’s something quite different doing something for your brother,” he told the Press Association.
“One of my motivations in life has always been wanting him to be proud of me.”
The MP’s brother died from high-grade acinic cell carcinoma, a rare form of salivary gland cancer.
Mr Fenton-Glynn is raising money for two charities this year: Salivary Gland Cancer UK, and Cancer 52.
The second of these is aimed at working to improve outcomes for the 55% of cancer deaths caused by rare forms of the disease.
“Life felt very unfair (when he died). He was one of the best people I ever met. He died in a way that I wouldn’t wish on the worst people,” Mr Fenton-Glynn said.
“It’s that moment in the last few weeks, he had lost his sight and most of his ability to speak, and could still make a brief joke about Monty Python in the middle and I remember when I was talking to a doctor, he was told he wasn’t strong enough to be part of any clinical trials, his first response was telling the doctor he didn’t agree.
“I wish there were more opportunities for him at the time and there were more trials open.”
He added: “The Christmas before, he had called me to tell me he had a bit of a lump on his face and it might be cancer, but it probably wasn’t, and if it is cancer, it’s a very treatable form.
“But it was a fast-acting version.
“They have only ever identified about 100 cases of that, but with more investment into rare cancers, we would probably have identified more.
“There were various points where it felt pretty tough.
“He had a 14-hour operation to have the tumour removed, but then it grew back.
“By summer that year (2024) they said he probably had 18 months to live, but he had about six months.”
Mr English was at one point in the 1990s “big in Japan” with his indie band Eva Luna.
“We all think our big brothers are rock stars, but he actually was,” the Labour MP said.
“I always wanted him to think I was cool.”
Though a seasoned marathon runner, Mr Fenton-Glynn said he likes to think of himself as a “voice for mediocre runners”.
He added: “I think doing something in your outside time is incredibly important as an MP.
“Before I got elected, Thangam Debbonaire said to me, there are running MPs and drinking MPs and it’s a good idea to be the former.”
The Labour MP is not alone in running the race in memory of a brother who died from cancer.
Sir Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former chancellor, is running his fourth London Marathon this year.
He and his sister will join a team of runners raising money for Sarcoma UK, the charity raising money to address the disease which led to the death of his older brother Charlie in 2023.
Over the course of successive marathons, they hope to raise a total of £1 million for the “brilliant, small charity”.
Another three outings should take them to the total, Sir Jeremy estimates.
Many of the Sarcoma UK runners are “notoriously famous for wearing outrageous kit, wigs and tutus and so on”, he said.
But he plans to opt simply for a T-shirt representing the charity, adding: “I’m going to be a little bit more conservative, as you might expect.”
The former chancellor, who turns 60 in November, said this year’s training has been harder than previous years.
“Last time I ran it in 2024 and it was in the run-up to my spring budget, and maybe because of the budget my mind was preoccupied, and I just got through the training and didn’t really think too much about it,” he said.
Labour’s Charlotte Nichols is returning for her third London Marathon this year, a total which would equal the record for female MPs.
Asked why she is taking part again, the Warrington North MP told PA: “I imagine it’s like when people choose to have more children and they just conveniently memory-hole the experience from previous childbirths.”
She “broadly memory-holed the experience” of her last London Marathon in 2021, but speaking to the chief executive of the Warrington Wolves Foundation in September inspired her to sign up to run for the rugby league team’s 150th birthday.
The foundation is spun out of the club and does various things linking the club to the community, including men’s mental health, inclusive sport – including pioneering physical disability rugby league – and keeping elderly people active.
North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan, an experienced half-marathon runner, said she “felt a little bit of the itch of running a long way” when she heard her Liberal Democrat colleague Wendy Chamberlain was signing up for the marathon.
“Also, I couldn’t say no to the chief whip,” Ms Morgan, who is running for the charities Lingen Davies and Hope House, added.
For Lib Dem chief whip Ms Chamberlain, it will be her first marathon.
The North East Fife MP, a former shinty player, got into running at the start of 2025, and is raising money for two charities: the Fife Carers’ Centre, and PANS PANDAS, which supports children with rare neuropsychiatric conditions.
One surprisingly challenging part of the training, beyond the “things beginning to twinge and ache that you didn’t quite know where they were”, has been choosing a soundtrack for long runs, according to Ms Chamberlain.
She added: “Podcasts you sort of miss a bit, so I’ve actually ended up doing audiobooks of books that I know quite well, and so if I miss a little bit, I still haven’t lost my thread.
“I just did Jane Austen’s Persuasion, so that took me through the Paisley half marathon a few weeks ago.”
James Wild, the Conservative MP for West Norfolk, has similarly got the bug for podcasts on his long runs.
His “go-to” listens for hours spent running through the countryside have been the spy-focused The Rest Is Classified from Goalhanger, and the National Crime Agency’s in-house podcast Underworld.
“Other than that I have been listening to a bit of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Songs From The Kitchen Disco,” he added.
Mr Wild, who is running for men’s mental health charity the 8:56 Foundation, has previously been able to boast of being the “fastest English MP”, beaten only by now-ex MP for the Vale of Glamorgan Alun Cairns when they both ran in 2024.
The 2026 race will be his sixth marathon, and his fourth as an MP.
For Conservative former minister Richard Holden by contrast, it will be his first.
“I’ve basically gone from couch to marathon in five months,” he told PA.
The Basildon and Billericay MP, running for St Luke’s Hospice, began to take an interest in running last year, after vowing to become more active when he gave up smoking in October 2024.
On Sunday, Mr Holden is likely to be easy for spectators to spot in his standout legwear.
“I’ve got a pair of very snazzy Union Jack running shorts. I got them from a company in Southend on the recommendation of a friend of mine who has done a marathon previously,” he told PA.
“They, along with Body Glide, have been saviours of mine, because I started to get severe chafing.”
