Runner who collapsed during Peterborough's Great Eastern Run thanks helpers as he continues recovery in hospital

David Tickle received CPR and A&E level care at the end of Sunday’s half marathon by volunteers from St John Ambulance, who took him to Peterborough City Hospital where he is still a patient.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “I would love to thank the person who looked after me when I collapsed. I think it was Thomas Payne but I can’t remember much from the incident. In fact, I can’t even remember much of the run!

“The staff at the hospital have been wonderful looking after me.”

David also posted on a public Facebook post that he is “recovering well in hospital”.

Asked if he had an existing medical condition, he replied: “No, I think I’ve just overdone it. It was my first one of that distance. I had trained but probably not enough.”

An eventful Great Eastern Run also saw a volunteer being hit by a car.

The man, who wished to remained anonymous, said the driver could have killed somebody if he had joined the road a couple of minutes earlier.

He said he was clipped by a black Land Rover attempting to enter Broadway from Huntly Grove at around 10.30am.

He recalled that the driver and passenger were irate after being told the road was closed, before claiming that they then swore at him, mounted the kerb in their car and knocked him out the way, before entering the road and heading off in the direction some of the participants in the fun run were coming from.

Fortunately, most of the runners had just gone by.

The volunteer said: “I told them ‘I’m sorry, the road is shut, there’s nothing I can do about it’. He swore and said ‘you’re not getting in my way’.

“He came onto the path and clipped me with a wing mirror, which knocked me to the side, and drove down Broadway with runners coming.

“I phoned the police and spectators on the other side of the road got the registration plate.

“I was not injured at all, but it could have been a lot worse.

“He sped out onto the road, and if it had been two minutes before he would have killed somebody. At the time, as he went onto the road there were people in the distance coming. He went past them.

“The run is fantastic, but you’re relying on kids policing areas which are notoriously rough.”

A police spokesman said: “Police resources were sent to some locations to provide support for the race marshals. This is something that will be taken on board in planning for future events.”

No arrests have been made.