Man Completes 33-Marathon Equivalent Challenge for Mother’s MS

An individual is undertaking a running challenge equivalent to 33 marathons to generate awareness for his mother’s medical condition. Martin Lively, a resident of Newmarket, Suffolk, has been covering 130km (80.77 miles) monthly since February, simultaneously collecting donations for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. His mother, Carol Lively, received an MS diagnosis two decades prior, and the illness impacts her ability to move. Mr. Lively, despite confessing a dislike for running, has accumulated over £3,000 to date and aims to achieve a total of £10,000. “What I wanted to do was run 130km a week but I’m not fit enough for that, so I did 130km a month because there’s 130,000 people in the UK living with MS at the moment,” he explained. He added, “It’s actually gone up to 150,000 since I started, there’s new figures out, so it’s really prevalent.” Mr. Lively’s mother received her diagnosis in her early twenties, approximately when she gave birth to him. “She was relatively able bodied for 20 years while she had it but it’s over the last decade or so we’ve really been able to notice her symptoms,” he continued. He further stated, “It’s a horrible disease. It’s degenerative to the brain so it’s difficult to get her around the house even and it affects not only the sufferer with MS but it affects their family as well.” To date, Mr. Lively has completed 1,270km (789.1 miles) of his run, with 160km (99.4 miles) remaining. “Ideally I’d like to be done by Christmas… it’s brutal, it’s intense but hopefully within three [or] three and a half weeks, we’ll be there and I can throw these running shoes away and never look at them again,” he stated. “It’s for a good cause and the amount of support I’ve had off people that I’ve known but people I don’t know who are getting behind this, it is amazing,” he commented. He added, “The people that I’ve spoken to who know somebody who has MS that I never would have found out about is staggering.” He concluded by saying, “This disease is affecting people and hopefully this is raising some awareness of it.” For updates on Suffolk news, content is available on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content found on external websites. Information regarding their approach to external linking is also available.