Ahead of the London Marathon, UK runners' favourite charities are revealed.

The National Trust, Help For Heroes and Cancer Research UK are the three most popular charities among UK runners, according to data insight company Starcount.

With the London Marathon coming up on Sunday (24 April), data insight company Starcount analysed Twitter data to discover which charities are most followed by the UK’s running community and therefore are likely to raise the most substantial sums over the fundraising weekend as dedicated sponsors flock to their chosen cause.

Among the most popular charity types for runners were children’s charities, armed forces charities or green charities.

Starcount found that 44% of runners follow at least one children’s charity, 25 per cent follow at least one green charity and 17% follow an armed forces charity.

Starcount’s Clive Humby said: “By taking a deep dive into specifically segmented audiences, Starcount is able to cross-reference individual people an therefore assess prominent consumer trends.

“In this study, Starcount analysis has been able to combine data on both running and charity Twitter fans in order to determine not just the most popular charities, but those most likely to receive sponsorship specifically on the London Marathon weekend.”