Staff at Accent Property rallied behind one of their colleagues this week as he took part in the Virgin London Marathon.

Brand & Marketing Manager Kristian Turner raised over £1,700 for charity. He ran as part of a 27-strong team put together by The Negotiator, one of the lettings industry’s leading publications. The team aimed to raise at least £50,000 collectively for Shelter, the UK charity for housing and homelessness.

Clare Bettelley, editor of The Negotiator (and the team’s captain), said: “The one certainty for us all during the downturn is that we had our own home to which to return at the end of each day, which is more than can be said for the 77,510 homeless households stuck in temporary accommodation across the UK. And this doesn’t include the individuals living rough on our streets.”

Kristian finished the 26.2 mile course in 4 hours and 32 minutes. He and his team now have until June 4th to collect the remainder of their sponsorship, though they already look set to smash their target.

Celebrating its 30th year in 2010, the Virgin London Marathon is the largest annual fundraising event on the planet – runners have raised over £450 million for good causes since the race began in 1981. Over the past three decades, the event has grown in size, stature and popularity, and is now well established among the major events in the world's sporting calendar. The Virgin London Marathon is shown on television in more than 150 countries around the world every year and in 2009 over 110,000 UK applications were received for the public ballot.