Andy Devaney
Charlie Quirke is swapping scripts for split times this spring, leading a marathon mission through the streets of London in honour of his mum, Birds of a Feather star Pauline Quirke MBE, and the countless families living with dementia. The actor will tackle the iconic 26.2-mile TCS London Marathon for Alzheimer’s Research UK, turning family heartbreak into a very public stand for dementia research.
It will be his second major fundraising challenge in just a few months for the UK’s leading dementia research charity, following a gruelling 140km trek that already showed how far he’s prepared to go to help find a cure.
From Five Counties to 26.2 Miles
In December, Charlie Quirke’s Trek For A Cure saw him walk across five counties in five days, stopping at places that mean the world to Pauline and the family. It was part pilgrimage, part endurance test, and it caught the country’s attention.
By the time the blisters healed, he’d raised nearly £300,000 for dementia research – a number that says a lot about public affection for Pauline Quirke, but even more about how deeply dementia cuts into British family life.
The decision to go again with the London Marathon didn’t come out of nowhere. In January 2025, the family announced that Pauline is living with dementia and had stepped back from her career. What followed was the kind of quiet, determined resolve that often arrives after a diagnosis.
Heartbroken by the reality that there is currently no cure, the family pledged their support for research and became Ambassadors for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The marathon is the latest chapter in that commitment.
Team Quirke: Famous Faces, Real Stakes
Nobody can bluff their way through 26.2 miles, so Charlie Quirke is not going alone. On Sunday, April 26, he’ll be on the start line with his fiancée, Chloe Thornton, and a tight crew of friends known as Team Quirke.
The line-up would make a casting director smile: Sinners and 28 Years Later star Jack O’Connell, Gavin & Stacey’s Andy Knott, Jamestown actor Luke Roskell and Happy Valley’s Adam Long, along with lifelong friends James Sharman and Ciarnan Spellman. It’s part running club, part support system, and very much a family affair.
Charlie puts it simply: “I’m so excited and honoured to be running the London Marathon for Alzheimer’s Research UK.
“It will be brilliant to have Chloe and a group of my close friends with me on this marathon journey. We are all inspired by my mum to support dementia research and help drive progress towards a cure.
“I’m so grateful to the charity for approaching my family and suggesting the idea of us getting involved with raising awareness and funds for dementia research.
“My mum has helped so many people throughout her life, so it feels great being able to do things for her and to help other people.
“The trek was such an amazing, incredible journey and experience. I think the marathon is going to be the same, but on a bigger scale because it’s such an iconic event with so many runners taking part.”
For all the star power in Team Quirke, the motivation is disarmingly ordinary: a son trying to do something useful when medicine cannot yet do enough.
Training Like a Pro, Running for Pauline
If you’re going to suffer your way through a marathon, you might as well get a taste of the big time beforehand. To prepare, Charlie Quirke and members of Team Quirke joined a special training day at London Stadium, home of West Ham United – the club the family supports.
For a childhood dreamer, it’s a pretty decent consolation prize.
Charlie added: “Someone said to me that running the London Marathon is the closest you can get to feeling like a professional footballer and that was always my dream. So, being able to feel like a pro footballer while running in support of this brilliant charity is going to be amazing.
“I am really looking forward to being on the start line.”
That mix of boyhood fantasy and very adult reality is at the heart of this story. The roar won’t come from a packed Premier League crowd, but from layers of spectators lining London’s streets, cheering for people they’ve never met who are running for causes they know all too well.
Dementia, Determination and 300 Orange Vests
On marathon day, Team Quirke will be part of a wider force: around 300 Alzheimer’s Research UK runners, each with their own story, their own reason for pinning a race bib to their chest. Together they form a moving, very sweaty reminder that dementia is not a quiet disease.
Jessica Taylor-Khan, Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Director of Supporter Led Fundraising, knows what that collective effort represents. “We are delighted that Charlie, Chloe and his friends will be part of the team of around 300 Alzheimer’s Research UK runners taking on the London Marathon.
“Their commitment to training for a marathon reflects the determination needed to revolutionise the way dementia is treated, diagnosed and prevented.
“Like so many, Charlie knows all too well the devastation dementia causes, following his mum’s diagnosis.
“By running the London Marathon and raising money for vital dementia research he will be helping us to find a cure and end the heartbreak of dementia.”
In fundraising terms, the 140km trek set a high bar. But the London Marathon is a different kind of stage: global TV coverage, millions watching, and tens of thousands of runners turning the city into one long, moving protest against complacency.
For Alzheimer’s Research UK, events like this fuel the laboratories, trials and breakthroughs that families like the Quirkes are desperately hoping to see.
What This Marathon Really Means
Strip away the medals, the timing chips and the celebrity friends, and this is a story that will feel painfully familiar to many people watching from the pavements. A parent receives a dementia diagnosis. A family scrambles to understand what comes next. The usual questions about memory and independence are joined by one more: What can we actually do?
In the case of Charlie Quirke, the answer is to keep moving – literally. First across five counties, now through 26.2 miles of London’s streets. The aim isn’t just to honour Pauline, but to push dementia research forward so that future generations aren’t having the same conversations in the same waiting rooms.
Running the London Marathon won’t fix dementia. But it might help fund the science that eventually will. And in the meantime, it gives one son, his mum, his fiancée and a band of friends a way to turn fear and sadness into something constructive – something measured not just in miles but in hope.
For those who want to get behind the cause, there’s a simple way to join Team Quirke without lacing up a single trainer:
To support Charlie go to www.runforpauline.org.
