Pitshanger Dad to Run Marathon with Incubator on Back

Peter Dudley fundraising for charity after death of one of his twins

Peter Dudley is supporting Cosmic

September 10, 2026

If you see a man with an incubator strapped to his back running through the streets of Ealing over the coming months, don’t be alarmed.

This unusual sight will be Pitshanger resident Peter Dudley training for the London Marathon next year.

39-year-old Peter is preparing to carry the incubator for the full 26.2 miles of the TCS London Marathon on 25 April 2027, in memory of his son Ryan and for his daughter Maddie. He will turn 40 before race day, and the challenge is as personal as it is ambitious.

Peter and his wife Lizzy’s twins were born at 24 weeks at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in April 2023, each weighing just 600 grams. Ryan lived for 45 minutes. Maddie spent 115 days in neonatal intensive care, first at Queen Charlotte’s and then at St Mary’s in Paddington, before finally coming home to Ealing in August 2023. She is now three.

Peter is running to raise money for Cosmic, the charity that supports both neonatal and paediatric intensive care units, and he is also attempting a Guinness World Record for carrying a neonatal incubator the full marathon distance.

The incubator that he will use has not arrived yet, so in the meantime, he is training in a more conventional way.

“Maddie couldn’t leave her incubator for four months, and Ryan never got the chance,” he said. “So I’m carrying one. If you see me out on Walpole Park or along the river with it on my back, give me a wave. It helps more than you’d think.”

The incubator is also becoming a fundraising tool. Peter and Lizzy previously raised £9,500 for Cosmic during Maddie’s hospital stay, money that helped improve the parents’ rooms on the unit. This time, the target is £25,000, and Peter is inviting 20 businesses to sponsor a space on the incubator at £500 each, with every pound going directly to the charity. The first slot has already been taken by Go Labs, a laboratory in Liverpool, where Peter grew up.

Peter and Lizzy comfort Maddie when she was in the incubator

Cosmic’s work is central to Peter’s story. During Maddie’s 119 days in hospital, she underwent 10 blood transfusions, was intubated three times, had six brain scans, ten chest scans, five heart echoes and a round of eye injections. Twice, her parents came close to losing her. “An incubator was her entire world,” Peter said. “We got to know her through a plastic wall, one gloved finger at a time.”

Maddie with the Dudley family after she was allowed home

He credits the nurses, doctors and Cosmic’s support for keeping Maddie alive and helping the family survive the trauma of losing Ryan. “Cosmic funds the state-of-the-art equipment the NHS can’t stretch to, trains the specialists, backs research into the conditions that nearly took Maddie, and looks after the parents. Somewhere to sleep. Someone to talk to at 3am. Counselling when the worst has happened.”

Maddie came home in August 2023. “Lizzy and I have never stopped being grateful,” Peter said.

Maddie is now three years old

Now, he is channelling that gratitude into the marathon — and into a record attempt that will turn heads across West London long before race day.

Residents who spot him running with the incubator are encouraged to wave, cheer or say hello.

You can support Peter’s fundraising effort here.