Jamie McDonald is running across Canada dressed as The Flash to raise money for The Hospital For Sick Children and two other British hospitals. He was beaten up and mugged in Banff, Alberta during New Year's celebrations.

Mr McDonald, from Gloucester, said he had seen the new year in with a crowd of people and was set upon after moving from the street to an apartment building. I've got a bit of a whacking headache. I got hammered quite a few times by some blows to the head," he said. "The bag was the most important thing of my life - it held everything of this whole adventure, all the video footage, my credit cards, everything I own."


McDonald, who's been trying to run a marathon a day across freaking Canada, had hoped to make it to Vancouver by Christmas but injuries and bad weather slowed him down. Now this.

Though not seriously injured, he's hoping for some friendlier Canadians to help him finish his race for charity. Which, again, is to raise money and awareness for children's hospitals. The reason? He feels indebted since receiving such great treatment as a child, when he suffered a "debilitating immune deficiency" and a rare spinal condition.


Update: Apparently, McDonald wasn't so much mugged as he got into a drunken, 3 a.m. imbroglio in hotel room with some randos he just met.

McDonald says his bag was left behind in a hotel room downtown after a surprise scuffle with men he'd been drinking with at 3 a.m. "I got caught up and dragged into a hotel room and three guys let me have it. I scrambled out and left, and I left my bag back in the room with all my possessions," McDonald told the Herald. Banff RCMP later located the bag, and all of its contents. "Luckily, they left it there," McDonald said.

Image via Twitter

Jamie McDonald: Cross-Canada runner 'beaten up' [BBC]