Virgin Money Giving adds 10% to London Marathon donations after website crash

Virgin Money Giving will boost donations to the London Marathon by 10% after its website crashed.

Thousands of people reportedly had problems accessing the official fundraising website on the day of the marathon and also in the days since then.

Instead, last-minute donors who tried to log on were greeted by a message saying the service is "currently unavailable".

In a statement on its Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) page, Virgin Money Giving said: "Unfortunately Virgin Money Giving was not available for part of the morning and to say sorry we will be boosting all donations made to charity through Virgin Money Giving on 23 April and 24 April by 10%."

A spokesman for the fundraising site told Sky News that the problems were caused by high demand.

He added: "Some people may have had to try more than once but our analysis shows that everyone who came back to make a donation has been able to do so."

But one of the UK's biggest single charity fundraisers, Darren Sims, who has raised more than £400,000 in his lifetime, says he is not satisfied.

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The 44-year-old was running the London Marathon for the first time on Sunday and claimed he lost out on lots of sponsorship because of the glitches with Virgin Money Giving.

"I think I lost around £2,000," he said.

"I was making videos along the route and trying to get more people to donate and they couldn't.

"I know people who are still having problems. Virgin Money Giving pledging 10% on what I raised on the 23rd and 24th is not enough, as so many people couldn't log on. It's 10% of nothing."

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Virgin Money Giving said the website is now up and running as normal and they are working to diagnose what went wrong.

It added that everyone who was raising money online on the 23rd and 24th, not just those running the London Marathon, will see a boost to their sponsorship.