Matt Hancock, the disgraced former health secretary, is running the London Marathon.
The Tory MP, now consigned to the back-benches, will compete in the famous race in aid of St Nicholas Hospice Care – a charity in his constituency of West Suffolk.
And his fundraising efforts appear to be off to a flying start. Among the many donors to Hancock’s page are a certain ‘Martha Hancock’ – the name of the ex-health secretary’s wife.
The pair split up following Hancock’s affair with married aide Gina Coladangelo, which was plastered across the front-page of The Sun.
Coladangelo, who is married to the founder of the retailer Oliver Bonas, Oliver Tress, is a friend of Hancock’s from their days together at Oxford University and was appointed to the Department of Health and Social Care last year.
She was initially taken on as an unpaid adviser on a six-month contract in March 2020, before being appointed as a non-executive director at the department.
The affair does not seem to have hit Hancock’s ability to drum up money for charity, however.
If the much-mocked former health secretary is still able to earn a contribution from his estranged ‘wife’, it must be for a good cause.
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