When serving a minimum 10-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on spying charges, Anoosheh Ashoori looked for purpose to survive the ordeal.

While others may have turned to despair, the 68-year-old British-Iranian retired engineer from Lewisham, took up running.

When a fellow inmate handed him a copy of ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, he made a pledge to run the London Marathon once he was freed.

Now having been released early from Iran in March, alongside fellow dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, his marathon dream is set to become a reality.