Cancer survivor runs 104 marathons in 104 days

Jack Hunt-Broersma, 46, of Canada, has been running a marathon every day since mid-January. That’s 42.2 kilometers a day! The woman set herself this goal after losing her left leg to cancer.

He finished his 104th marathon this Saturday. Hunt-Broersma expects this achievement to be certified Guinness World Record. According to a media spokesman, the process will take about three months.

The previous Guinness World Record for women was 95 marathons. It was set up two years ago by Alyssa Amos Clark, a non-alternative runner from Vermont. He chose marathon running as a strategy to deal with epidemics.

In the men’s category, Spain’s ultra racer Ricardo Abbott has set a new record. He is said to have run 607 marathons in 607 days. He finished the series in 2012.

Jack Hunt-Broersma was certainly relieved. “I was very happy to be a part of it,” he told the BBC. “The other part was I thought I should continue to run.” His body is recovering from the record hunt: “I feel good during the full 104 marathons.”

It has been 20 years since Dutch doctors diagnosed Jackie with “Evings sarcoma”. It is a rare form of bone cancer.

Within two weeks, she had to have her left leg amputated to save her life. She is 26 years old. She recalled: “It was a roller coaster ride, everything happened very quickly.”

At first the young woman had trouble accepting what had happened. She was angry and shy. She wore long pants in public to prevent her prosthesis from being noticed by others.

In 2016 Jackie started running. He bought a special prosthesis for long distance runners and recorded his first 10 km run.