An American man who took on a half-marathon to raise money for cancer research deemed everyone who assisted him the real champions.

Kevin Maloney, 60, flies to Bermuda every year to run the Chubb Bermuda Triangle Challenge in honour of his late wife, Lisa.

This year, the senior vice-president of the insurance firm Allied World returned to the island with a team of 76 people — the largest group he has compiled — from all over the United States.

Mr Maloney said that several members of his team, Run For Lisa, were quite successful in the race, including María Teresa Pavon, who finished in the top five of the women’s elite race.

He added: “I like to think that everyone who runs for Lisa and has love in their hearts is already a champion.”

Mr Maloney, from New York, has been doing the three-day race since 2017 to raise money for the St Baldrick’s Foundation, an international charity devoted to fighting children’s cancer.

He and his wife, an avid supporter of the charity, were frequent visitors to Bermuda before she died from cancer in 2016.

Mr Maloney described Bermuda as their “second home”, adding that, because of this, he has run in every Triangle Challenge Race in Lisa’s name.

Mr Maloney said that, over the years, the challenge became easier, particularly because he was raising money to combat childhood cancer.

He explained: “I feel like that aspect — trying to raise money in my beautiful wife’s memory for cancer research — just emboldens me to want to do it more and more every year.”

Mr Maloney added: “I feel like if we can figure out how to cure paediatric cancer we’ll figure it out for everyone — but we picked the children to help first.

“Some people may say that it gets harder or more exhausting, but for me it doesn’t because I think my wife made my heart so full of love that I just want to give it to everyone.”

He said that seeing the crowd was a great help, especially since numbers had grown every year as word of his efforts spread.

Mr Maloney said that several people on-island have built up hype for Run For Lisa.

He added that the same effect was happening at home, with many of his friends and co-workers across the US joining him.

Mr Maloney said: “It’s just incredible how much the love and everything has spread.

“The Bermudian people love us — they’re out on the course, they’re screaming for Run For Lisa and they know what it’s about. We love them and we want to give back.”

He added: “I have so many coworkers and friends from the States who now want to come and visit and explore Bermuda.

“The people who come, once they come and see how beautiful the island is, they don’t want to leave.”

Run For Lisa’s donation page for this year has reached $93,358, making the amount of money they had raised since starting the fund more than $809,000.

Mr Maloney said that they could likely raise $100,000 by the end of the year — a feeling he described as “wonderful” — and that he hoped to raise $1 million.

Mike Almskog, a friend of Mr Maloney’s, compared his drive to raise money to the legendary racehorse Secretariat, adding: “He’s got the biggest heart of anyone you’ll ever meet.”

His other friend and fellow runner, Jeff Miragliotta, said that Mr Maloney was one of the few people who could motivate him to do the challenge as often as he had.