A BARRY hospital worker is hoping to secure a second world record when he runs the Cardiff half marathon dressed as a lion on October 2.

Oliver Williams, who works in the Vale community resource service at Barry Hospital as a physiotherapy team lead, is aiming to run below the 1 hour 22 minutes set by a ‘sheep’ and claim the Guinness World Record for the ‘fastest half marathon dressed as an animal’.

He took the ‘fastest Superman to finish a half marathon’ record in March this year.

Mr Williams, 30, is raising money for the Noah’s Ark charity for the Children’s Hospital for Wales.

Mr Williams, of Cardiff, said: “I try to fundraise for different charities.

“I completed the Bath half marathon a number of years back dressed as a monkey. It was horrible as the head wouldn’t stay on properly. I needed to run the whole thing with one hand in the monkey’s mouth to stop the head falling off.

“I can’t imagine what it must be like to have a child in hospital so the more money they can get to improve what they can do the better.

“The Noah’s Ark charity has four animals as part of their logo - a lion, giraffe, hippo and tiger.”

Children on the hospital’s wards chose.

“I’m really glad they picked the lion,” he said. “The giraffe would have been a nightmare to run as.”

He added: “My colleagues think I’m nuts. They were a bit disappointed that the giraffe didn’t get the vote. They’re always a very generous team with any fundraising and charity work.

“My friends think it’s great and several are glad that I’m fundraising for Noah’s Ark, as they’ve recently had children that have needed treatment there.

“I’m intentionally not doing any training in the costume. Ignorance is bliss.

“Doing any runs in fancy dress is great for getting support from the crowd, you get a lot more cheers and they really get behind you. A lion is also great for coming up with puns. It gives me a lot of pride.

“The most annoying thing is going to be the head,” he said. “It bounces around when I run which will probably be a bit annoying after the first few miles.”

Visit www.justgiving.com/cardiffhalflion