Running 5-km, every 5 hours, for 55 hours for WWTW

Jeff Stephenson, a veteran based in North Shields in the north-east of England, took on and beat an extraordinary challenge in support of Walking With The Wounded.

Starting on Friday 21 March, Jeff, 61, ran a 5-km circuit every five hours for 55 hours. He ran through both the Friday and Saturday nights, finishing on Sunday lunchtime.

A former Royal Marine who served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland, before serving as a firefighter for 27 years, Jeff is now a personal trainer. Inspired by the Goggins Challenge (4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours), Jeff wanted to create a more accessible challenge. With his encouragement, others joined him over the 55 hours by walking for their own challenge.

"I'm big on mental health and mindset," Jeff explained. "I wanted to come up with something that pushes you, but anyone can take part in their own way."

Before the challenge Jeff predicted: "The biggest challenge will be the lack of sleep," Jeff admitted. "It'll be run, eat, sleep, repeat. I've prepped my meals so I can eat little and often — no one wants to run after a big meal!" And, it turned out that his prediction was true, the lack of sleep was the hardest part: “I literally got none, I just couldn’t switch off and when I finally did it was time to get up and go running again!”

Afterwards he said: “The best bit was seeing all the other guys who I encouraged to do it, who were over the moon. It was a massive achievement for them as they had never done anything like it before, and they asked me to present them with medals which was very humbling for me."

Jeff has far exceeded his fundraising target, and the donations are still rolling in for his incredible achievement.