Sport Relief weekend raises £31m for charities

More than 165,000 people – some on space hoppers and pogo sticks and others on hands and knees – completed the Sport Relief Mile run yesterday.

Olympic athletes Christine Ohuruogu and Colin Jackson were among the first to cross the finish line in London while elsewhere in the country, celebrities including the singer Beverley Knight and the DJ Norman Cook turned out to support the charity event. Organisers said last night the Sport Relief weekend had so far raised £31,633,091.

Other famous faces who took part in the Sport Relief Mile along the Thames included the comedian Eddie Izzard and the paraplegic Iraq veteran Major Phil Packer.

Izzard paused during his run to shake hands with Maj Packer, who lost the use of both legs after a rocket attack in Basra. He was told by doctors he would never walk again but has raised £1m for Help for Heroes. The Tory leader David Cameron was among the first to cross the finishing line. Asked how his political rival Gordon Brown would have fared, he replied: "I don't know – he should have turned up."