Which celebrity London marathon runners have raised the most for charity?

With just over two weeks remaining until the London Marathon, runners should now be tapering their training regimes to make sure they’re in top shape for race day. But while the physical toil might be lessened, for the time being, this is the time when participators step up the pace with their fundraising efforts.

With many charities demanding minimum fundraising totals upwards of £1,500, reaching the target can be tough. But surely for celebrities, promoting their cause is much simpler? We took a look at how some familiar names compare with one another in the fundraising stakes.

The surprise winner of the celebrity totaliser is the McFly drummer Harry Judd, with a whopping £12,812.85 so far. Judd is running with a team of friends in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and Eyes Alight. They intend not only to complete the 26.2m course, but also take part in Tough Mudder two weeks later, a half-marathon-length obstacle course that boldly describes itself as “probably the toughest event on the planet”.

Judd’s running total (pun intended) may have been boosted by the news yesterday that he has been diagnosed with a minor heart condition brought on by his intensive training regime. The musician tweeted that his ectopic heart beat proves he’s “pushing as hard as possible for the marathon”.

Competing for the first time last year, Ed Balls raised a spectacular £68,683. This year, he’s aiming to take that figure to £100,000 by raising a further £31,317. But the shadow chancellor’s total currently languishes at just £1,139, a mere 4% of his target, having only just started his fundraising drive for Whizz-Kids and Action for Stammering Children.

Balls can comfort himself with the knowledge that he is still beating his parliamentary rivals. Conservative MPs Jason McCartney, Nicky Morgan and Graham Evans have raised £832, £492 and £263 respectively, according to their Just Giving pages. Leaping ahead of Ed, though, is fellow Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who has raised £3,213 so far of his £10,000 target for Cancer Research.

Balls has said that he hopes to achieve a faster time this year, with his father-in-law promising to double his donation if he makes it round in sub five hours. Alas, a spokesperson for the politician told us that – most disappointingly – we won’t be seeing Balls don a novelty banana costume in the name of charity.

In the battle of the news readers, Sian Williams is currently ahead of her BBC colleagues Susanna Reid and Sophie Raworth, with an impressive £6,638. Williams signed up to the London event after the New York marathon was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

At the other end of the scale and in need of your support are The Only Way is Essex’s Amy Childs, with £200, and TV presenter Jenni Falconer, whose total currently stands at £117, according to her Virgin Money Giving page. However, Falconer is not a newcomer to the marathon world, and has the fastest previous time of any of our celebrities at 3hr 20min.

Falconer has said: “Training is proving tricky this time round because I am also trying to juggle looking after my little girl, Ella, who is 18 months old”, but that the opportunity to raise money for The Childrens Trust is motivating her to complete the course. She adds, plaintively, on her donations page, “Please make the blood, sweat, tears, injuries, aches, pains and bulging blisters worth it!!”

• All figures are taken on Thursday night from the Just Giving and Virgin Money Giving websites and are – of course – going to change.

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