WESTBURY fundraiser Martin Pearce, better known as ‘Shoeperman’ was featured on BBC’s new game show ‘First and Last’ on Saturday 4th January.
Martin has been fundraising for local charity Children’s Hospice South West since 2017 and has raised tens of thousands of pounds.
He has also raised money for other charities too over a number of years.
He has taken part in a number of challenges from running, cycling and abseiling. However, he is most well known for running as ‘Shoeperman’, dressed as a running shoe.
Due to him running the London Marathon last year as ‘Shoeperman’, Martin was approached by the developers of BBC’s new game show First and Last, hosted by Jason Manford, to take part in a challenge during its TV debut.
Martin told White Horse News, “Zeppotron who are part of Endemol (creators of TV comedy shows) approached me to see if I was interested in being involved.
“I wasn’t a contestant but part of one of the rounds called ‘Jog On’. The idea of the programme is contestants have to go through various rounds and not be first or last. The round I was involved in had 7 people who had run the London Marathon in costume and the contestants had to pick the character hoping their time was in the middle, ie not the quickest nor the slowest.
“Filming was at Pinewood Studios at the start of December and it was a very long day. But I couldn’t wait to see the final show.
“It’s always interesting to see yourself on the screen, you do wonder if you really look like that, sound like that etc.
“I got some great coverage although they did cut quite a bit of the footage that was taken, but realistically they have to trim everything down to a 40 min programme.”
Shoeperman will be back out for the Bath Half Marathon this year on Sunday 15th March.
Martin added, “I have donated my fee and expenses given to me from the filming of ‘First and Last’ to the fundraising for the event. I am again raising money for Children’s Hospice South West.”
If you would like to donate to Martin’s London Marathon fundraising, you can visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Shoeperman.
To watch him in BBC’s First and Last, you can catch the episode on BBC’s Iplayer.
