Jack’s 24-hour clapathon in Streatham for our carers raises more than £8,000

NHS medics could do with a hand right now.

That’s not exactly what the country has been giving them every Thursday night at 8pm – although the applause has been very welcome.

Streatham resident Annemarie Plas devised #ClapForOurCarers, but a Streatham film-maker has taken it one step further.

Rather than just paying tribute to medical staff for a few seconds on his doorstep on Thursday, he gave them a 24-hour round of applause. And the fundraising smashed his £5,000 target to reach £8,065.

Jack Peagam, 25, from Kirkstall Gardens, Streatham Hill stood outside his house when the whole nation begins its weekly clap for carers – and then carried on.

Jack raised the money for NHS workers and carers, with all proceeds going to the NHS Charities Together fund.

His hands were not at all raw afterwards, though. “They are literally completely normal, even straight after I stopped,” he said. “I don’t understand it to be honest! I thought I’d be in pain for weeks lol.”

He also might find himself in the Guinness Book of Records if he pulls it off.

Jack, who runs a production company making sport and fitness videos, said: “Like everyone, I am in total awe and have great admiration for our doctors, nurses and health professionals who have put themselves on the front line to treat those infected by the coronavirus. I just wanted to do something to say thanks.

“The Guinness World Record for applause is about two hours so I beat that – but they might need more evidence if I am to be the record holder.

“I’ve heard nothing from them yet – it can take up to 12 weeks to process the application and I only applied a week ago. And unfortunately because of the tech problems we had during the live streams, there isn’t a full 24 hours of evidence. So I might have to settle for eight hours being the record because I have evidence of that amount of time within the stream. We’ll see…”

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