Hit the road Jack - 17 Marathons in 15 Days

*PLEASE READ ALL BEFORE DONATING*

Five years ago today, on March 19th, I was diagnosed with an incurable Brain Cancer.

Gym at 7am… seizure, hospital, scans, brain tumour diagnosis by 7pm.

Quite the day.

At the age of 25 they said that with chemo, radio and surgery that I'd be lucky if I lived past the age of 40.

& if someone had told that chubby, borderline alcoholic that five years later he'd have run 5 ultra marathons, well, the word bullshit would have been involved.

But here we are.

& what next, I hear you ask? How do we celebrate todays milestone?

By running 720km's in 15 days (over 17 marathons before you whip out a calculator). Along the coast of South Africa from Cape Town to Natures Valley.

Why?

Your guess is as good as mine.

But we're doing it.

For those that have been with me on this journey, one thing i've valued for as long as I can remember is being off-grid, staying off tech, being present, not having any socials and not wanting attention.

So the thought of putting my story and this journey out there to the world has been a huge internal battle.

But as one person said to me, if you want to make real impact and change lives in a way that yours has then you need to get over yourself.

Brutal, but true.

So really, WHY am I actually doing this?

Well, one thing I’ve learnt in the past 5 years is that ALL of us have the power to heal ourselves.

Through diet, through breath-work, through meditation, through many other modalities. We can all heal.

My journey continues to be one of meditation.

I am eternally grateful to have met countless cancer survivors who, having been given no hope, have reversed their prognosis through the power of the mind.

So I guess this is my way of sharing my story. Probs could have picked an easier route, but hey ho.

Now unfortunately, i'm not yet a millionaire, so this whole project is going to cost me c£5,000 if my estimates aren't a million miles off.

So before you donate, I want to be fully transparent in where this money is going to.

A new car for Ja.. No, seriously.

This time round I'm asking for a little bit of support for me, to hopefully cover the costs.

Accommodation alone for me + crew is c£2,000

Nutrition c£750

Kit c£500

The rest will go on fuel and other resources detailed on my mammoth excel spreadsheet.

If, and knowing my community it will probs be the case, we raise over what I need or the £5,000 then the rest will be donated across 2 different charities:

1 - The Brain Tumour Charity. A charity dedicated to funding research, raising awareness of brain tumours, reducing diagnosis times and providing support and information for people with brain tumours, their families and friends.

2. Ladles of Love. A Cape Town based charity that serve hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children and families from depots throughout the Western Cape and Gauteng region in South Africa.

I believe it's important to honour the place I've called home this past year and where I'll be running in this next challenge - having volunteered regularly for Ladles of Love and being part of the life changing work they do, choosing them felt like the easy choice.

As always, don't feel pressure to donate - Instead, send this link to your rich pals and pull on their heart strings to do it for you.

Much love,

x