After running 1,140 km across 27 countries in 27 days, Malta’s own marathon man gladly walked the last few weary steps of his epic journey into the warm embrace of his wife and young daughters at the airport yesterday.

Nathan Farrugia did so safe in the knowledge that he has dashed into the record books as the first person to run 27 marathons in 27 different countries – each EU member state – in consecutive days.

“It’s great to be back with my wife and kids,” were his first words to The Sunday Times.

“It is a great feeling to know we managed to succeed where no one thought it was possible. But the best thing was that we raised a lot of awareness for charities and quite a bit of money,” he said.

As of yesterday, the 27x3 Kinder European Endurance Challenge had raised over €38,000 for charity, and Mr Farrugia hopes people will continue to donate over the coming days.

“It’s great that we have managed to raise so much already and we’re very grateful to the people who have donated. But I think we would like to raise a bit more to develop the projects. So for a short while we’ll keep it open for people to donate more,” he said.

The main beneficiary of the fundraising challenge will be Inspire, the Foundation for Inclusion of which Mr Farrugia is CEO. It helps over 1,000 children and adults with learning and physical disabilities across its five centres in Malta and Gozo.

In addition, 75 per cent of the funds raised in each country outside of Malta will go to the selected beneficiaries of that country, with the remaining 25 per cent going to Inspire.

Italy raised the second largest amount (€5,000) after Malta. Mr Farrugia ran the Italian leg of his marathon on day 18 in Alba, headquarters of main sponsor Ferrero, which “rallied the troops” and ensured there was a great deal of support for Mr Farrugia – and Nutella for supporters – on the streets.

The hardest marathon for Mr Farrugia was the Bulgarian one on day 25, as “the route was very difficult with lots of hills and smog. This was reflected in the time (four hours, 26 seconds).”

Travelling between marathons was mostly done on “campaign headquarters a camper van. Occasionally the team would have time to do a spot of sightseeing or go for a meal after a marathon but because distances between marathons were so large, they spent most of the time travelling in the van, with Mr Farrugia trying to rest ahead of his next endurance challenge.

His lowest point came when he suffered a painful muscle injury in his leg on day 10 and did not know if he would be able to continue – but he soldiered on with the help of his back-up team, including trusty navigator Cliff Sultana.

Mr Sultana would ride the marathon routes ahead of Mr Farrugia on a bicycle to show him the way and he looked the more exhausted of the pair when they arrived together at Malta International Airport yesterday.

“That’s because I am (exhausted). I’m looking forward to sitting down in front of the TV without having to worry about waking up early and preparing my bags with Nathan’s nutrition and drinks and following the purple line,” Mr Sultana joked, a reference to the GPS system he used to navigate the marathon routes.

“We’re happy with funds raised but we encourage people to donate more, as much as they can. Fundraising was the whole point of the challenge and all our efforts will be for nothing if people don’t donate,” Mr Sultana added.

Donations can be made on the website www.27challenge.com or by SMS. Send a text message with the numbers ‘27’ to 50618 926 to donate €6.99 or 50619 215 to donate €11.65.

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