AN East Yorkshire priest is preparing to run two marathons in eight days to raise funds for a Catholic overseas development agency.

Father Paul Dowling, of St Mary’s Church in Market Weighton, will take part in the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon in York on October 20.

Within days, he will then travel to Slovenia to run in another marathon in Ljubljana on October 27.

Although the races will be his ninth and tenth marathons respectively, this is the first time he will complete two such runs only one week apart.

His previous marathons were Copenhagen in 2005, Jersey in 2008, Shakespeare, held in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in 2009, Connemara in 2010, White Peak in 2011 and Belfast last year, while earlier this year he ran the London marathon, completing it in 4 hours 42 minutes, and then the Milton Keynes marathon, in 4 hours 26 minutes.

Father Dowling said he raised more than £1,300 for CAFOD – the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development – from generous parishioners in Market Weighton and Holme-Upon-Spalding Moor when he took part in the London race, and he was fundraising for CAFOD again this autumn.

He said the money would go towards the agency’s ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF..’ campaign.

He said: “It is a scandal that even today, there are many people around the world who still do not have enough food, so running for CAFOD is my small, but hopefully significant, contribution to raising awareness of this international issue.”

• Anyone wishing to sponsor Father Dowling should go to: JustGiving.com/Paul-Dowling2 or text CAFO99, followed by the amount, to 70070.