A British man on a cross-Canada fundraising run dressed as the superhero The Flash ran into villains in Banff, Alta., who beat him up following New Year’s celebrations.

Jamie McDonald of Gloucester, U.K., said he was in costume when three men dragged him into a hotel room about 2 a.m.

The 27-year-old, who is running to raise money for Canadian and British children’s hospitals, including SickKids in Toronto, was then dragged into the room’s bathroom and repeatedly struck.

McDonald struggled with his attackers and eventually bolted out of the room and into the streets.

He said the men appeared to be in their late 20s or early 30s, but he does not remember what they looked like.

McDonald said he was not seriously hurt but something nearly as precious as health was lost that night. In his flight, he left behind his bag, which contained his wallet, credit cards, camera and a hard drive containing footage of his nine-month journey.

“That hard drive is possibly $1 million worth of fundraising for children’s hospitals,” he said.

The bag and all its contents were eventually found about 8:30 a.m. not far from where McDonald was attacked, when his Facebook followers visited the area.

“Maybe (the attackers) had a change of heart,” McDonald said.

Banff RCMP could not immediately be reached for comment on the attack, which made headlines in the British media on New Year’s Day.

McDonald has raised about $97,000 so far in Canada and about $21,000 in the U.K.

That was after covering about 6,000 kilometres since beginning in Newfoundland last March. McDonald, who didn’t say when he would hit the road again, is due to complete his journey in Vancouver, almost 1,000 kilometres down the road.

As a child, McDonald was hospitalized on and off for nine years due to syringomyelia, a degenerative disorder in which a cyst forms on the spinal cord and grows over time, often causing nerve damage.

Last July, as he passed through Toronto, McDonald told the Star that exercise diminished those childhood symptoms and he was hoping to inspire children with his run.

“I chose Canada because I heard it was the best country in the world,” he said at the time.

That view remains unchanged, even after the attack.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s a blip in the ocean,” McDonald said.

The luxury Fairmont Banff Springs hotel gave McDonald free accommodation Wednesday night.

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“Anything we can do to help him on his journey, we’re more than happy to do,” hotel spokeswoman Lori Côté told the Star

Neither Côté nor McDonald would say which hotel was the scene of the attack.