A Silsden man who ran 50 mara-thons in 50 days has published a book about his experience.

Sam Boatwright, 30, ran 2,500 miles during 50 days in April and May last year, raising £22,000 for Help for Heroes before returning to Skipton to his own hero’s welcome.

Sam, a personal trainer at Escape Health Club in Skipton, decided to write Smile Big, Run Hard because, he said, “a lot of people want to know what it was like to do a run like that”.

He added after paying for publishing costs, proceeds from the book’s sales will also be donated to the charity cause.

“I raised £16,000 through my website last year and received £6,000 in cash donations, so hopefully with a few more book sales, I can push that on a bit more.”

Smile Big, Run Hard was released on August 14, and Sam said early sales had been good, including one to comedian John Bishop, whose mention of the Epic Run on Facebook last year gave Sam’s fundraising a boost.

“He put me on his Facebook page and the number of ‘likes’ on my page went from 1,500 to 3,000 in the space of a night,” said Sam. “It was absolutely superb of him to do that.”

Sam is now planning two more charity events within the next year.

The first is the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon taking place in York on October 20, which the 16-stone North Ribblesdale rugby player hopes to complete in under three hours. He will be raising money for the charity Carers’ Resource.

Then in June 2014, Sam is aiming to complete the 856-mile Lands End to John O’Groats route in just nine days to raise more funds for Help for Heroes.

To do so, he will have to run about 100 miles a day, sleeping just three hours each night.

“A lot of people are saying I can’t do it, but I know a lot of parents who can cope on three hours of sleep a night.

“I’m not expecting a massive amount of donations, I just want to break the record,” he said.

Visit epicrun.co.uk or call into Escape Health Club to buy Sam’s new book, which costs £9.99 or £12.99 for a signed copy. Unsigned copies of the book are also available at amazon.co.uk.