Campbell, a keen runner who has competed in the London Marathon, has claimed that the Dispatches programme had deliberately mis-represented the event.

He said: "If I had to list my top ten experiences in life, completing the London Marathon 2003 would be in there somewhere.

"Partly it was the emotion of the day, which despite all the warnings from people who had done it before me took me by real surprise.

"It was also the fact that I managed to raise half-a-million quid for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, in memory of my best friend John Merritt.

"But it was also the fact that it was a superbly organised, fantastically managed event of which Britain should be incredibly proud.

"Alas modern TV documentaries tend not to do the 'of which Britain should be incredibly proud' thing.

"So Dispatches did their worst trying to present the Marathon organisers as money-grubbing chancers taking charities along for a ride.

"Since doing that run when I was still in Downing Street, I have done many sporting events in different parts of the world.

"Very few get even close to the Marathon in terms of scale or impact, and I know I am not alone in the charity world in being appalled at the misrepresentation of a fantastic event which is so important to so many good causes, and which raises cash for good causes itself."

The last occasion that Dispatches investigated the London Marathon in March 1991 they ended up losing a high-profile High Court libel case and having to pay a record £1.1 million ($1.6 million) in damages and costs to Chris Brasher and John Disley, the founders of the race.

They sued Dispatches after the programme alleged that it used the event to enrich themselves.

Campbell said: "I know Dispatches have in the past tried to do over Mother Theresa and Seb  Coe, so clearly they like to go for popular targets.

"There is something curiously British about the British media's desire to tear into really good things.

"The London Marathon is a really good thing. It is why virtually everyone who runs anywhere in the world wants to do it.

"It is why it is so hard to get into.

"It is why charities rushed to its defence last night.

"It seems perverse to me to attack an institution that gives away all of its profits to charity and which in 30 years has helped to raise over half-a-billion pounds.

"The former journalist in me also wonders why there was no proper space within the programme for the Marathon to respond to the programme's claims.

"The good news is that the event, in a few weeks' time, will be a great success.

"So will next year's, by which time Dispatches will probably have moved on to exposing Santa Claus as a paedophile."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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