A selfless London Marathon runner sacrificed his own race to help a physically exhausted competitor across the finish line.
Matthew Rees stopped his own race to help amateur runner David Wyeth, who collapsed just before the finish line.
Helped by a marshal, Rees then walked Wyeth towards the finish as they were applauded to the end of 42km course by the crowd that included Princes William and Harry.
They finished together in a respectable time of two hours, 52 minutes and 26 seconds.
The 29-year-old said helping his fellow competitor was “more important” to him than his race time.
The bank worker, a member of the Swansea Harriers running club, said: “I took the final corner thinking ‘right, it’s nearly done, time to sprint’, and I saw this guy and his legs just crumbled below him.
“I saw him try to stand up again and his legs just went down again, and I thought ‘this is more important, getting him across the line is more important than shaving a few seconds off my time’.
“I went over to try and help him and every time he tried to get up he just fell down again and again, so I just tried to cheer him on, picked him up and said: ‘Come on, we can do this’.
“He was really grateful, but he wasn’t very coherent, he was just like ‘I have to finish, I have to finish’.
“And I said ‘you will finish, you will get there, come on let’s do this’, but every time he tried to move he would just fall again so it was important to guide him.”
The pair then separated and Wyeth, who was said to be running in memory of his uncle, was taken away for medical treatment.
Watch the video here:
👏 This is incredible! Swansea Harrier Matthew Rees helps a struggling runner cross the line at the #LondonMarathon pic.twitter.com/Fg83sBfpoo
— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) April 23, 2017
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