Man smashes world record by running three marathons a day for a week
Doctors feared he’d become wheelchair-bound due to a rare condition… now this 32-year-old Pride of Britain winner has ‘smashed a world record’ by running three marathons a day for a week on a treadmill
- Jamie McDonald was given a rare spinal condition diagnosis at the age of seven
- It can cause muscle weakness and paralysis, which Mr McDonald escaped
- He credits his recovery to fitness which helped him raise $1million in five years
- He will attempt to run the equivalent of three marathons a day for seven days
A man who doctors feared would become wheelchair-bound as a child has ran the equivalent of three marathons a day for an entire week.
Jamie McDonald ran a total of 524.4 miles (843.9km) over the seven days, finishing on May 6, only stopping for a 90 minute break a day to let him sleep.
The 32-year-old managed to eat and drink while running on the treadmill, placed in a marquee tent in his home city of Gloucester.
Mr McDonald was diagnosed aged seven with rare spinal condition syringomyelia, which can cause muscle weakness and even paralysis.
The Pride of Britain award-winner spent his childhood in and out of hospital as baffled medics tried to understand why he was so poorly.
But miraculously, Mr McDonald ‘grew out’ of his condition, and now, despite all odds, is to become a second-time record-breaking athlete.
Jamie McDonald, 32, who was feared to become wheelchair-bound as a child has ran the equivalent of three marathons a day for an entire week
Mr McDonald ran a total of 524.4 miles (843.9km) over the seven days, only stopping for a 90 minute break a day in which time he would sleep. Pictured at the finish
The 32-year-old managed to eat and drink while running on the treadmill in a marquee tent in his home city of Gloucester. No stranger to charity work, Mr McDonald has already raised more than £760,000 ($1million) for sick children over the last five years, becoming well known for his alter-ego ‘Adventureman’
Mr McDonald, pictured as youngster with his mother, Anne McDonald, spent his childhood in and out of hospital as baffled medics tried to understand why he was so poorly
His achievement has yet to be verified by Guinness World Records, as officials must pour over hours of CCTV to check no rules were broken.
However, the previous world record distance for seven days of constant running on a treadmill was 513.97 miles (827.15km) set by Marcio Villar in Brazil in 2015.
No stranger to charity work, Mr McDonald has already raised more than £760,000 ($1million) for sick children over the last five years, becoming well known for his alter-ego ‘Adventureman’.
The week-long run, in aid of his co-founded charity Superhero Foundation, follows a 5,500 mile run across the US. Over 11 months, he raised more than £162,000 ($210,000) in a 210 marathon coast-to-coast.
And in 2014, he was named Pride of Britain’s ‘Fundraiser of the Year’ for the West after a coast-to-coast run across Canada which raised more than £250,000 ($326,293) and spawned a number one best-selling travel book, raising more than £383,200 ($500,000).
Mr McDonald topped the previous record on May 6 at 10.30am, with more than two hours to spare. He ended the feat in chronic pain and sleep deprived.
As he stepped off the treadmill, he told the crowd at Pillar and Lucy Square in Gloucester Quays: ‘You do know what they say about world records? Not just beaten but they have got to be smashed.
This morning, after celebrating the end of the week with a large curry, Mr McDonald said he has a high temperature and everything has seized up.
Mr McDonald said he was ‘born sick’ before a spinal condition diagnosis at the age of around seven years old. Pictured with his mother as a baby
Mr McDonald, a fitness fanatic, began fundraising with sport seven years ago. Pictured recently during a marathon across America
Mr McDonald doesn’t remember much of being ill as a child but had dizzy spells, a low immune system and struggled to eat. Pictured with his older brother when he was a child
He added: ‘I can’t help but feel like everything is one big murky dream – like it didn’t happen.
‘When I got back to my mum’s yesterday, I just broke down into tears.
‘My body feels angry with me. I physically can’t walk or move my legs properly – ironic considering that’s exactly what happened to me as a kid – and I had to be carried into the bath like a baby last night.’
From the age of six weeks old, Mr McDonald constantly felt unwell. His mother, Anne McDonald, was told he had epilepsy and an immune deficiency.
She told MailOnline: ‘Name the infection and Jamie had it from the immune deficiency – tonsillitis, eye infections, ear infections, urinary infections. He was always on antibiotics.’
At the age of five, Mr McDonald’s infections eased. But in its place came headaches, leg pain, a loss of appetite and dizzy spells that would leave him ‘as white as snow’.
Mr McDonald said: ‘I was in and out of hospital having tests but my mum really pushed for tests after I would lose feelings in my legs.
‘I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like there were bricks on my legs and I couldn’t move them. It happened more than once. That was a really scary time.’
Doctors at Royal Gloucester Hospital arranged for Mr McDonald to have an MRI around the age of seven.
They called Mrs McDonald the same day with worrying results – he had syringomyelia, a disorder in which a fluid-filled cyst, called a syrinx, forms within the spinal cord.
The condition was almost practically unheard of at the time. Now, it is believed to affect less than one in 10,000 people in the US. Its prevalence in the UK is unclear.
Mr McDonald, pictured as a baby with his father, Donald McDonald, and step-brother Lee Little, as in and out of Royal Gloucester Hospital and Great Ormand Street having tests from a young age
Before his diagnosis, Mr McDonald, pictured with his family (being carried by his mother) said he would feel like bricks were resting on his legs and he could not move
Despite having pain and dizziness every day, Mr McDonald, like any child, was unable to resist playing – and soon found his love for sport. He credits his mobility to escaping the grasp on his condition, and said he feels ‘lucky’
As the syrinx gets bigger over time, it damages the spinal cord and compresses nerves that communicate messages to the brain and body.
Damage to the spinal cord often leads to progressive weakness in the arms and legs, stiffness in the back, shoulders, arms, or legs, and chronic, severe pain.
It could also cause a loss of feeling for pain and temperature in the fingers, hands, arms, and upper chest, depending on which nerves it affects.
Pain and stiffness could end up causing spasticity in the legs and eventually affect the ability to walk, in severe cases causing paralysis.
Mr McDonald remembers his childhood was troubled with his mother’s anxieties about what the future held for her son.
He said: ‘People can end up in a wheelchair so for my mum that was the greatest worry.
‘I wasn’t oblivious to what was going on, but I could feel my mum was always worried. At one point I had a whole year off school and I had tutoring because I was so unwell.’
Mrs McDonald said it was difficult to get her head around the diagnosis and her son’s complex health problems, which were being overseen by specialists in three different hospitals – Royal Gloucester Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
She said: ‘You don’t know what’s going to happen. They said he could end up in a wheelchair because the cyst, which was between his shoulder blades, could strip all the nerves in the spinal cord.
‘I went through a time where I got quite depressed and just kept crying wondering what was going to happen.’
Despite having pain and dizziness every day, Mr McDonald was unable to resist playing – and soon found his love for sport.
From Monday April 29 to May 6, Mr McDonald will attempt to beat the greatest distance run on a treadmill in one week which currently stands at 513.97 miles (827.16km)
A 5,500 mile, 210 marathon coast-to-coast run across America this year raised more than £162,000/$210,000 for hospitals in various states
He said: ‘I remember by mum putting a piece of string the garden and saying, “do you want to play tennis?”
‘I initially said I didn’t feel up to it but I went out and played anyway. Then I got this love for movement. Like when you throw a ball for a dog and it just wants to run.
‘In the space of a year, I remember the movement helped me but that probably wasn’t the doctors’ prescription to heal.’
While being monitored with MRI scans, Mr McDonald’s symptoms eased as his enthusiasm for sport kicked in and his mobility increased.
Medication may be given to ease the symptoms, or surgery may treat the underlying cause by restoring proper flow of cerebrospinal fluid and to remove the pressure on the spinal cord. Other patients are simply monitored if they don’t have severe symptoms.
At the age of 21, Mr McDonald was relieved to hear that because his cyst had not grown, it was unlikely to ever do so. He was taken off the monitoring list.
His luck spurred him on to live life to the full – seven years ago he decided to start fundraising by travelling the world on a bicycle.
He said: ‘I was saving a deposit for a house. I went to sign the papers but I got a gut feeling it wasn’t right.
‘Instead I bought a bicycle advertised in a newspaper for £50 pounds and decided to cycle round the world, giving back the hospitals that had helped me.
‘It was just an idea but then it became what it is today.’
Now, he is waiting for verification that he has broken the record for the greatest distance run on a treadmill in one week – after breaking the Guinness World Record for the ‘longest marathon static cycle’, cycling in place for more than eleven days in December 2012.
Mr McDonald, who still hasn’t bought the house he saved for, said: ‘The furthest I had gone was 75 miles and I was broken after it.
‘About yesterday – it just felt like the entire city was there and supporting me, both in person and through what I’m told was happening online.
‘Thank you Gloucester. It was and is overwhelming, and brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it.’
WHAT IS SYRINGOMYELIA?
Syringomyelia is a disorder in which a fluid-filled cyst, called a syrinx, forms within the spinal cord.
This syrinx can get bigger and elongate over time, damaging the spinal cord and compressing and injuring the nerve fibers that carry information to the brain and from the brain to the rest of the body.
As a syrinx widens, it compresses and injures nerve fibres that carry information from the brain to the extremities.
Damage to the spinal cord often leads to progressive weakness in the arms and legs, stiffness in the back, shoulders, arms, or legs, and chronic, severe pain.
Other symptoms may include headaches, a loss of the ability to feel extremes of hot or cold (especially in the hands), and loss of bladder and other functions.
Syringomyelia may have several possible causes but most cases are associated with Chiari malformation.
This is an abnormal condition in which brain tissue extends through the hole at the bottom of the skull and into the spinal canal, obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
It may also be caused by spinal cord injuries, spinal cord tumors, and damage caused by inflammation in around the spinal cord. In some cases, the cause is unknown.
Treatment is either monitoring or surgery.
Syringomyelia most commonly presents in young adults between 20 and 40 years of age, but can also develop in young children or older adults.
Some reports suggest that syringomyelia is slightly more common in males than females.
One estimate places the incidence at 0.8 in 10,000 in the general population in the US.
Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
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