‘Incredible’ PC Gorilla continues London Marathon crawl

A man still crawling the London Marathon dressed as a gorilla has revealed his identity as a serving police officer. Tom Harrison, from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), began the race on Sunday morning at 10.34am on all fours, and is yet to finish the second half of the route. By lunchtime on Tuesday (April 25), Mr Harrison had reached Rotherhithe station – around 11 miles into the course – but he is confident he will finish the marathon by Friday (April 28). The 41-year-old, who also goes by the name ‘Mr Gorilla’, is crawling to raise money for The Gorilla Organization, which works to prevent the mammal’s extinction. Although his plan was to raise £2,000 – which would have paid for at least three months` worth of supplies and salaries for a team of rangers protecting gorillas in eastern Congo – he has now reached more than £12,500. Mr Harrison has been sleeping at friends’ houses in the evenings after completing around 10 to 12 hours of crawling. This is not the first time he donned his infamous furry suit to fundraise. Last year he ran the London Marathon and in January swam the Thames while wearing it. Mr Harrison said: “I ran the marathon last year dressed as a gorilla for the fabulous Gorilla Organization who fundraise for gorillas out in Africa who are endangered, and I decided to do something different this year so I am basically crawling. “I had lots of people clapping me as I went over the start line on my own, I was the last person to start, and it was a bit of a lonely vigil the last day or so, but today it’s definitely warmed up. “More people know about it now, more people have been waving at me and peeping their horns, or coming up to me and saying ‘are you Mr Gorilla? Well done’ so it’s really good. “Events like this bring Londoners together so it’s for everybody else as much as it is for gorillas. These days you’ve got to do something a little bit different, especially if you’ve already done an event, just to capture people’s imagination so as long as it’s within the rules of the marathon, give it a go.” Director of the Gorilla Organization, Jillian Miller, said Mr Harrison is one of the charity`s “top fundraisers”. “He`s one of those incredible people – when he sets his mind to something, he`s going to do it,” she added. A total of 821 police officers took part in the 2017 London Marathon – 548 males and 273 females.