The good causes that marathon runners are most likely to prioritise have been revealed in a survey.

YouGov found that health and medicine charities are the most popular choice for marathon participants, cited by 15 % of runners. This is three percentage points more than among all British adults.

The other most popular causes are children and young people (12%), animals (10%) and poverty relief (9%).

Runners are almost twice as likely to donate to poverty relief, while the overall British population attracts higher shares of contributions to causes relating to animals and the environment, YouGov also found.

YouGov also found that runners are much more likely than the general British public to make charitable donations.

Among runners, seven in ten (71%) are likely to donate over the next three months, compared to 64% of the all adults.

The polling firm’s data also found that “runners and marathoners are more than twice as likely than the national population to have represented a charity in a sponsored event, including but not limited to marathons and bike rides”.

It added: “Almost two in five runners (37%) say they have represented charities in a sponsored event, whereas that rate drops to 17% of the overall British population.”

Earlier this month London Marathon organisers revealed that their charity of the year for the 2022 event will be the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) London Marathon aims to raise £3m for BHF through the link up.

This year’s London Marathon attracted £19.9m in donations via Virgin Money Giving. A total of £1.9m was raised for the 2021 event’s charity of the year, Macmillan Cancer.

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