Man running marathon to 'save mum's life' nearly died after collapsing at mile 18 and going into coma

A dad who decided to run a marathon to "save his mum's life" nearly died after he collapsed at mile 18 and was put in an induced coma.

Marcus Nunes Filho was 39 when he decided to complete the 26.2 mile challenge to help raise £30k to assist his mum, Irani Nunes Filho, 62, who had both legs amputated having developed acute thrombosis aged 55.

After the amputation, doctors discovered a tumour below Irani's knee which turned into tumoral thrombosis.

Tumoral thrombosis happens when a tumour extends into a blood vessel, limiting and possibly halting blood flow. She needed life-saving surgery to fix the tumoral thrombosis and an extreme infection after the double amputation and nerve-ending pain. The money raised by Marcus was meant to help Irani access surgery for the infection and nerve pain, and pay for her to get prosthetic legs.

Marcus says seeing his mum go through the ordeal severely impacted his mental health – and in December 2019 he tragically tried to take his own life. Thankfully he survived and decided to turn his life around by running the New Forest Marathon in September 2022.

However, 18 miles in, Marcus collapsed due to heatstroke and dehydration and says his next memory is waking five days later – before spending another six months in and out of hospital. Doctors found Marcus was suffering from organ failure and bronchitis – with medics believing undiagnosed pancreas problems had worsened his condition.

Thankfully he was discharged in December 2023 and after six months was found to have made a full recovery. He now hopes to complete the New Forest Marathon next year and finish the challenge he started.

Dad-of-two Marcus, a forklift driver, from Bournemouth, Dorset, trained for the marathon by completing four half-marathons and three 10km challenges. His fundraising efforts, which he called Iron Legs Fundraiser, took off – with Tottenham Hotspurs player Emerson Royal donating signed shirts for the cause.

Incredibly, he managed to raise enough money to get Irani the operation she needed. She went into surgery in May 2022 and has now made a full recovery.

After collapsing during the run on 11 September, he was put into an induced coma for five days and woke up on a ventilator. “On day of marathon I was feeling brilliant, I had done a 20-mile training run three weeks before,” Marcus said.

“Marathon day came, and I started well – until at 18 miles when I was feeling fine, but I collapsed. Then I woke up week after in hospital, I had machines breathing for me and dialysis for blood flow. Even though I collapsed the achievement was saving my mum's life.”

He went on to say: “With all the mental health I was going through with my mum and all the pressure I was under, I tried to commit suicide, and someone stopped me. I had two choices - either to carry on feeling depressed and suffering with my mental health or not.

“My mum had been diagnosed with a tumour which was spreading through her legs, we wanted to go for private surgery, but we were looking at around £20k to £30k. People said if you need to raise that kind of money you need to do something amazing – so I took up the challenge to run a marathon which is something I've never done before.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to turn things around - I’d gone from 12 stone to 18 stone and while training in nine months I got back down to 12-and-a-half stone. Men who are struggling with their mental health need to speak up and look for help – it's been challenging.”