Jeremy Joseph of G-A-Y is best known as Britain’s leading gay nightclub owner. But on 21 April he’ll be putting on his sneakers to do the London Marathon for the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF).

It will be his fourth consecutive London Marathon – he has previously done two for EJAF and one for Amnesty International – and this year he has raised an incredible £195,000 ($300,000 $228,000), including from some celebrity sponsors.

A last-minute fundraising effort over the next 10 days aims to increase that figure to £250,000 ($384,000 â‚¬293,000). To help he’s posting bucket collections outside all his venues for a week from 15 to 21 April, asking people to donate 50 pence each towards the total.

The money he has raised is very much a community effort, as Joseph himself recognizes. In particular he relies on the support of his staff and punters at the G-A-Y venue in Manchester and the G-A-Y Bar, G-A-Y Late and Heaven nightclub in London.

We jogged* up to him to ask more about the highs and lows of marathon running.

Do you enjoy training and do you have any training tips for other marathon runners?

Yes and no. I enjoy running to keep fit and I enjoy going out for a 10 mile run. But around February, I increase my distance by one mile a week, and when you start doing anything over 15, the fun goes and the blisters start.

I’m answering this question after just finishing my last training run, 20 miles of non-stop pain, my quads are in agony and it’s that they may stop me achieving the 26 miles.

What people need to understand is that an injury can happen at anytime and even if you achieve all your training goals, even on the day you can be hit by injury. That’s the most disheartening thing, all that training and then on the day it can go all wrong, so you just want to keep your fingers crossed for yourself and all the other runners

Are you looking forward to the day or dreading it?

Absolutely dreading it, I scared of letting people down and that’s how I see not achieving the marathon. It’s that old saying, you are only as good as your last hit, so whatever marathons I’ve done in the past, its all about achieving this one.

Is there a particularly hard moment on the marathon – and how do you get through that?

The hardest is the beginning knowing you got 26 miles still to go… It all really depends on the day when the hardest part is.

One year, my quads started to really hurt, I was in so much pain, about the 17 mile point, I was in tears, but was coming up to the White Swan [gay pub in East London] where there was lots of G-A-Y staff (getting very drunk, some of them have drinking marathons, ahem, they know who they are). There was no way I was going to let them see me in tears, so having them there gave me a lift.

Another one of the other hardest parts is being overtaken by people in strange costumes. Last year I was overtaken by a bottle of beer and a banana.

Are you running on your own or with others?

This year I’m running on my own which makes it harder. Last year I had a running partner but he has an injury this year, so unfortunately I’m all alone. Aaah; that deserves some sponsorship!

You have already raised £195,000 ($300,000 â‚¬228,000) which is extraordinary. How have you managed that?

That is really simple. It’s all down to the generosity of friends, staff and customers of G-A-Y. If people don’t donate, then you don’t raise money, it’s as simple as that.

Have you had any famous sponsors this year?

Rick Astley just sponsored me £5,500 [$8,465 â‚¬6,450]. David Walliams did an event for us with a donation of £5,000. And in the past I’ve been sponsored by Kylie, Bryan Singer, Adam Lambert, Carol McGiffin, Sophie Ellis Bexter and The Saturdays.

Why are you so keen to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation?

The great thing about EJAF is that they themselves don’t use the money. They distribute it with grants to other charities. So by choosing EJAF over other charities means we are supporting so many different charities.

To me it’s not just about fundraising, it’s about raising awareness. I feel G-A-Y has a duty to its customers to promote safer sex and to promote how important it is to know your [HIV and sexual health] status. Gay venues are a direct source to lesbians and gay men and we should use that wherever we can to protect members of our community, but also when needed to campaign for our equality.

You can sponsor Jeremy Joseph’s run for EJAF here. UK cell phone owners can also text EJAF69 to 70070 to give £4.

*Metaphorically.