Marathon man Steven Quayle knows all about getting through the pain barrier.

He completed last weekend’s London Marathon with a broken bone in his foot after stepping on a discarded bottle at a water station just eight miles into the run.

Steven, a full-time firefighter based at Douglas fire station, was running the marathon to raise funds for Hospice Isle of Man and to raise the profile of Positive Bones, a charity for which he acts as ambassador.

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He said: ’The run was going really well. I was getting a lot of personal bests.

’But around about eight miles I stepped on a stray water bottle by a water station. I broke a bone in right foot and at the same time sprained my hip on the other side and partially tore my calf muscle.

’It was really sore straight away. I was in absolute agony. But I was prepared for a little bit of pain and so I carried on.’

At 16 miles, Steven could barely move and stopped at a physio’s tent for some treatment. ’By that time the pain was really bad and more so in my left leg,’ said the 29-year-old from his home in Douglas.

Despite his agony, he stuck it out and hobbled over the finishing line in a very creditable time of three hours 57 minutes and 33 seconds.

’I was in pieces. The last three miles were horrible, I was trying to work out how much longer I had to go. The last 400m my calf was getting worse and worse. I had a vision of breaking down on the finishing line but fortunately that didn’t happen.’

So why didn’t he give up after eight miles?

He said: ’I was there representing Hospice and they deal with so many different people who are going through a lot worse than I was. I could not really just stop.

’I’m an ambassador for Positive Bones that was set up by a lady who had to have a leg removed because she had bone cancer when she was 17. She goes through that every day.’

Steven is now on crutches and recovering at home, with 20-month-old daughter Harper and wife Rachael.

Having never run a marathon before, he had actually been called in as a last-minute replacement by Hospice after another fundraiser had to drop out - and he only had two months to train. ’I’ve got a basic level of fitness so I thought I would give it a go,’ he said.

He is unlikely to be able to climb a firemen’s ladder for some time but said he hoped to be back at work as soon as possible. Sponsorship money is still coming in but Steven has raised at least £1,100 for Hospice.