Jamie Austin, 49, from East Finchley in north London, was cheered by friends and family as he completed the 220-mile route from Garforth near Leeds, West Yorkshire, to Brent Cross in London yesterday.

He raised more than £11,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in the process.

Mr Austin's son Henry, 12, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in June 2020. He wanted to raise awareness of the condition and let his son know how proud he was of him for dealing with the news "brilliantly".

He decided to run the length of the M1 because he and his son have had to drive along the motorway regularly since Henry joined a clinical trial at Sheffield Children's Hospital in 2020.

On 23 January he started the run at Garforth, the last M1 junction.

"I'm thrilled to have completed my hare-brained project. Despite the challenges, I have loved every minute," Mr Austin told the PA news agency.

"It reminded me of the importance of just going for something. I don't have a running background and I really didn't know if I'd finish when I set off, but I am so pleased that I decided to take on a big, random and slightly scary challenge.

"More than anything, I am grateful to my whole family - including my brilliant 'road crew' mum and dad, my wife Rach and my kids Henry and Rosie for being my inspiration - my absolutely first-class friends for their amazing support, my lovely neighbours and school teams, and everyone who sponsored and supported me.

"I've been absolutely blown away by the support and people have been so generous."

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Before his challenge Mr Austin had only run a half marathon and jogged shorter distances at weekends.

Due to a couple of rest days he completed around 22 miles per day - running a route off the motorway for safety.

Mr Austin was joined on his runs by a cuddly toy owned by Henry and a "support" team of his mother Glennis, 78, and father Barry, 80.

He documented his days running with daily TikTok videos featuring his running companion - Henry's first cuddly toy monkey - aptly named Monkey.

"I thought it would be nice to have that reminder of Henry wherever I'm going," he said.

"I also just kind of started chatting to him because I had no one else to talk to and doing a bit of a voice for him.

"The video diaries that I make are really for my kids and my friends and they were all saying we love Monkey, so I gave Monkey more and more time in films."

Mr Austin said he kept in contact with his family via daily FaceTime video calls.

"It is nice to be able to see them and hear them, but I've never been away from them for this long before, so it is unusual."