Plymouth Father Concludes ’12 in 12′ Ultramarathon Challenge

A Plymouth resident has successfully concluded a fundraising endeavor, which involved completing 12 ultramarathons over a 12-day period. Mehdi Taheri is collecting donations for Breakthrough T1D, a charity that finances research aimed at discovering a cure for type 1 diabetes. His daughter, Scarlett, currently 14 years old, received a diagnosis of the condition in 2012. On Saturday, over 60 runners accompanied him during his concluding 50km (31-mile) race through Plymouth. He remarked that this accomplishment “wouldn’t have been possible” without their assistance. Following the run, he informed the BBC: “Everyone stepped up to this challenge to make it happen, laced up.” He continued: “I was asking them to run with me at like four o’clock in the morning. “The first day there were 13 of them. Today there was over 60. “That goes to show how strong the community is, how strong our little family is and how much we care for one another.”I think it makes the world a better place – they knew how much this challenge meant to me.” The 40-year-old stated that he was particularly proud of the accomplishments of those who participated in the challenge alongside him. He said: “I made a challenge that involved the whole community. “I had people who had never run more than 5k [5km, 3.1 miles] running a marathon, people who had never done more than a half marathon and they’ve done an ultra marathon.”We care for the type 1 diabetes community, that was the message; raising awareness and funds for them and, hopefully, we get a few quid today now that it’s over. But what we need to do is keep banging that drum. “We will continue doing this. I will do more with the team that I’ve got and anything is possible.” To date, Mr. Taheri and his fellow runners have accumulated over £7,000 through his JustGiving page.