There is nothing you can’t do if you really put your mind to it - that is the message from multiple sclerosis sufferer Mary Daly.

She took part in her first London Marathon this year and raised £12,810 for the appeal for a new MS centre in Canterbury.

Mrs Daly completed the race in five hours, 36 minutes and said finishing had been a brilliant achievement for her.

“I wanted to show people that there is nothing you can’t do if you really put your mind to it,” she said. “I think running the marathon is 40 per cent fitness and 60 per cent mental attitude.”

Mrs Daly, who was diagnosed with MS in 2006, lives in Kings Meadow, Kennington, Ashford, but once or twice a week she attends Canterbury’s MS therapy centre in Merton Lane for oxygen treatment.

She handed over her cheque at a monthly money-raising event called the Big Breakfast in Adisham village hall.

The money will be put into a special fund to pay for gym equipment in the new centre.

On the first Saturday every month volunteers cook breakfasts for people in Adisham village hall in aid of the MS centre appeal, usually raising about £300 every time.