:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59484309/mc.1524492939.png)
Matt Campbell, the 29-year-old Lake District chef and former MasterChef: The Professionals contestant, has tragically passed away after collapsing during yesterday’s London Marathon, it was reported this lunchtime.
An experienced marathon runner, Campbell was running yesterday in memory of his late father Martin, raising money for the Brathay Trust charity for which his father had worked, when he collapsed at the 22.5 mile mark, later dying in hospital.
There has, today, been an outpouring of respects for Campbell, as those in the industry remember a “talented, innovative and driven chef with a bright future.”
“Awful news,” tweeted Jay Rayner, “I presented Matt with an award for outstanding achievement at last month’s Cumbria Life Food and Drink Awards. He was clever and, as my colleague @gracedent said in @obsfood only yesterday, hugely creative and innovative. My thoughts are with his family.”
The Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent remembered Campbell as “Brilliant, clever, funny, incredibly talented Matt. This is unfathomable.”
Jamie Park, head chef at London’s The Frog, and former MasterChef co-contestant of Campbell’s, took to Instagram to remember a “great friend and inspiration”.
Since the announcement of Campbell’s passing, his Just Giving page has seen thousands of pounds of donations to Brathay Trust in his memory.
If you would like to do something in memory of chef Matt Campbell, who died running the marathon yesterday, his just giving page is here. He was raising funds for the Brathay trust, which works to improve the life chances of children and young people https://t.co/ddtm7fcgky
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) April 23, 2018