Madathlon Fund is a charity aimed at helping as many people as possible. Their aim is to relieve sickness and to preserve health by providing or assisting in the provision of equipment not normally provided by the statutory authorities

Madathlon was set up in memory of Claire Gardiner.  Claire suffered for 2 weeks what was believed to be a bad migraine. On the 19th of December 2012 she woke up at 3am having lost the ability to open her left eye and in a lot of pain, Claire was taken in to hospital. Within an hour of being in Darlington Memorial Hospital Claire was sent for a CT scan and the results showed a large brain tumor. Claire was given morphine to ease her pain and she fell asleep.  Claire was prescribed a course of drugs to fight the tumor, and Claire slowly deteriorated and ended up in a coma on life support. After a long day, she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at James Cook hospital in Middlesborough. On arrival Claire had another CT scan after which the doctors gathered the family together and explained that the tumor had reacted badly to the medication, it had become aggressive and spread to the rest of her entire brain.  There was nothing that they could do to save her. The following day Thursday 20th of December 2012 Claire was pronounced dead at 15.21. 

Claire donated 4 organs to 4 different people 3 of which were in there 20's and 1 to a man in his 60's. All 4 are recovering well from the operations and are making good progress.

The Madathlon event starts with the Three Peaks, Ben Nevis - Scarfell Pike - Snowdon over the first weekend in June. The next weekend involves the Coast to Coast cycle ride from Whitehaven to Newcastle (Tynemouth) and the following weekend they complete the Great North Swim which is a one mile open water swimming event in Lake Windermere.

The Madathlon Facebook page contains information about current activities and the people they are trying to help.