On Friday 9th April the incredible Darren Hardy will put his body through 5 back to back marathons in under 50 hours. V-FORCE Training are delighted to give our support and Chris Vosper, V-FORCE Founder and CEO, will be running alongside him for part of the challenge.
Darren’s aim is to use this mammoth event as a platform to raise awareness for Aggie who has an extremely rare brain disease called H-ABC and to raise much needed funds for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“When £4 million is needed to save your childs life, how deep would YOU dig!?”
The 35-year-old former soldier and father of two who lives in Fleet, will start his challenge from Poole at 8am on Friday 9th April and will run south along the coast as far as Abbotsbury, west of Weymouth, before turning back to Poole.
Aggie, Sofia and Frankie’s families will be heading to Poole to support Darren as he crosses the finishing line back on the beach near South Haven Point. Supporters are encouraged to join them.
Darren will just keep running until he drops, BUT Aggie doesn’t have that luxury of time or being able to fight the worlds rarest brain disease.
“How much would you contribute to save the lives of 200 children with the worlds rarest brain disease, EVERYTHING counts as time is not an option.”
100% of funds goes straight to one lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. There are no stakeholder profits.
Please help donate to Darren’s Just Giving page, support this mammoth journey and share this incredible story 🙏 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/darren-hardy123
Just Giving page – Darren’s 5 in 50 (5 marathons in 50 hours)
Meet Aggie, she’s 12 and she has an extremely rare brain disease called H-ABC.
Diagnosed at age 6, Aggie used to run, play and sing but is now permanently in a wheelchair and is rapidly losing her fine motor skills. Aggie’s family is now in a race against time to reach their £4m target to get Aggie a new life-saving gene therapy developed in the US.
This is where Darren comes in…
This Friday Darren will be running 5 marathons in 50 hours to raise awareness and much needed funds for Aggie, and other children like her, and help get the treatment that could change their lives.
He will be covering 131 miles in two days on foot, running solo through the night only stopping to refuel.
But, there is new hope. Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have made a breakthrough. New gene therapy that slows down the disease in mice could help save Aggie and children like her.
We need £1m for human trials to begin, which is why he’s racing against time like Aggie.
Every penny counts!
“100,000 shares with the sacrifice of the cost of a cup of coffee this week will do it” 💪
“So who is this incredible man Darren Hardy!?”
Extreme athlete Darren Hardy, Owner and CEO of Fortitude Front. Fortitude Front is a leadership training company, which specialises in Mental Resilience.
As a former soldier, Darren spent 15 years in the British Army from 2003 to 2017, serving in Northern Ireland and Iraq, with multiple exercises overseas, from Poland to Canada. His experiences left a lasting impact on him, including a seriously injured shoulder and he has been diagnosed with PTSD.
Sport and training became a big part of Darren’s life as part of his recovery after he was medically discharged and saw him a double gold medallist and Warrior Games record breaker to taking on a number of extreme endurance challenges to push himself physically and mentally. Over the lockdown, Darren raised £16,000 for Help For Heroes and £8,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital through various extreme sports challenges, including running 112 miles over 37.5 hours on his treadmill at home. His challenges include:
- December 2020 – 190 km World’s Highest Duathlon at 12,000ft (10km run, 150km bike, 30km run)
- October 2020 – 10 Ironman Distance Triathlons in 10 Days in 10 Locations
- Aug 2020 – 933 km Adventure Triathlon – Scotland via the Caledonian Canal: 112 km Paddle Board, 779 km cycle, marathon, 42 km
- July 2020 – 203 km Run-Swim-Run – 84 km to Lepe Beach, carrying 50lbs, 6 km swim across the Solent, with kit and bergen, 113 km around Isle of Wight
- May 2020 – 121 km Charity Treadmill Run – carrying 35lbs Extreme Isolation (World 1st) on VE day
- January 2020 – 480 km Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra
These extreme challenges, Darren explains, are his way of creating a focus point that enables him to better manage his PTSD as he plans and executes them, so he always has another big event on his horizon.
In 2021 after his ‘5 in 50’ for the H-ABC Foundation UK, Darren is targeting further hugely inspiring challenges including an Arctic Triathlon World Record Attempt, swimming in minus 1.8 degrees water and biking and running through snow and ice, as well as a 300+ mile Treadmill Run in the London Eye, without leaving the capsule to raise funds for veterans (every mile to represent a veterans’ suicide).
Darren will also tow a double amputee veteran with neurological difficulties on a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride on a special bike designed for two-men and then push him through the marathon run to help them both achieve dreams and raise funds for other veterans.
Please join us in supporting Darren to help raise awareness and these much needed funds.
Best wishes
Chris Vosper
V-FORCE Training
0118 950 5280
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