A CUMNOCK man has ran a marathon with broken ribs to honour his girlfriend’s dad who died of cancer.

Luke Flemming, 25, ran the Loch Ness Marathon to raise money for Beatson Cancer charity who looked after his gran, Jean Hodge, and partner’s dad, George McSeveney, before they passed away.

The cracked bones weren’t enough to hold the determined lad back as he took just over four hours to complete the race raising an impressive £1,180.

Luke insisted that the thought of his girlfriend and family waiting for him at the end inspired him to keep going and cross the finish line despite the pain.

It comes after he was kneed in the side during a football game tackle leaving him in agony.

But Luke refused to call off the race in a desperate bid not to let anyone down and contribute towards the charity so they could help more people like Jean and George.

Luke said: “I had wanted to run a marathon and decided it was a good opportunity to help a good cause.

“Beatson have helped a lot of people I know, my great gran sadly died from cancer when I was young but my family remember the kindness of the staff. More recently for my girlfriend’s dad who had cancer and was treated there.

“I cracked my ribs playing football two weeks before it.

“It was pretty difficult but probably less sore than I expected.

“People had donated already and I had to miss the Edinburgh Marathon with an ankle injury.

Luke’s mum Helen Fleming said: “Basically he wanted to run a marathon just for the challenge. He chose to raise funds for the Beatson as his great gran was treated there before she died.

“His partner’s dad also died from cancer so raising money for a charity which helps local cancer patients seemed like the ideal choice.

“He cracked his ribs the week before the run playing football, he got a knee to the ribs in a tackle.

“He was determined to still run the marathon because he had already had a few hundred pounds donated and didn’t want to let anyone down.

“He took painkillers before he started and managed to finish although in photos I have of him around two miles from the finish you can see him holding his ribs with the pain.

“His partner, Brogan, his dad and I did lots of sharing on Facebook while he was running and one of his friends donated £71 just before he finished so he would be at his £1,000 target at the finish line.”