These Geordie lads are running around all the Greggs in Newcastle for charity

Not satisfied with their hungover trek to Greggs on a Friday morning, three Newcastle locals have decided to run around EVERY SINGLE Greggs in Newcastle. That's 29 Greggs.

Coming in at just over the length of a marathon, Matthew Clark, Matthew Hutton and Matthew Bradbury are running to raise money for the Greggs Foundation's Hardship Fund and have set up a Just Giving page. The Fund provides grants to people in the North East who are financially suffering.

What uni are you at and what do you study?

MC: Going into second year Classics with Arabic at Oxford.

MB: Going into first year Economics at the London School of Economics. I spent my gap year in Beijing learning the language and working for the National High School Debate League of China (for some reason they haven’t taken me off the “meet the team” section of their website…)

MH: Going into second year Maths at Cambridge …So you could say we’re all fun guys.

Why did you decide to return to the Toon to do the run?

MB: We all live here, so are at home until the next term at Uni starts. We are blessed that Newcastle is the Greggs capital of the world with more Greggs per capita than any other city.

The route the boys are running (not dissimilar to a squirrel)

Where did the inspiration for the run come from?

MB: This originally started when I tagged the other two in a meme about the number of Greggs in Newcastle, and a mixture of peer pressure and idiocy turning it into a full blown idea. The most time we spent together in exam season was while running, so I thought going to them all would be a funny way to resurrect that tradition.

After a brief argument about which Greggs counted and which didn’t (nothing south of the river, and also nothing that would make the route less like a squirrel) we plotted all the Greggs on a map. It’s at this point we realised quite how long 26 miles was, way more than any of us had ran before, and quite how under-prepared we were – but at this point we’d told too many people to back out. Chatting with a friend’s mum, she pointed out we probably should be raising some money for charity – and that’s where we are now.

The fund helps people in really difficult situations by buying essentials like cookers and clothing that can make a real difference to their lives.

How long do you think it’ll take, longer than a marathon is a fair distance…?

MB: Hopefully a little less than 5 hours, but it really depends on the weather and our capacity to not die.

The most important questions: will you stop for a steak bake at every establishment?

MB: We originally planned on eating in each Greggs, but after doing a shorter trial version of that run we realised we’d die – instead we just plan on a selfie at each.

Last but not least...What’s your favourite Greggs?

MC: The unseen bastion of Greggs: the sausage, bean and cheese melt.
My favourite Greggs is the one opposite Poundland near the Grainger Market, where – to my shame – I once took a girl on a date.

MB: Too many to choose. I probably eat stotties the most, I once showed up to a house party in London with no alcohol but a bag full. There’s nothing better while hungover than the breakfast meal deal (Bacon Sandwich and Coffee), but that’s still nothing on a Corned Beef Pasty.

MH: Yum Yums because they're godly and you don't get them anywhere else.

The Matts are running on Tuesday 7th August, so think of them whilst you're tucking into your third Chicken Bake of the day.