Athlete runs 101 marathons in 101 days to raise awareness of refugees' journey

ITV News Reporter Rhys Williams has the story

An endurance athlete from Derbyshire has raised more than £27,000 after running 101 marathons in 101 days.

Since New Years day, Kate Jayden has completed a 26.2 mile run every single day, alongside a full-time job. In total, they have covered 2,646 miles since 1 January.

Kate's goal was to run 100 marathons in 100 days, which they accomplished on Saturday, after completing the Brighton marathon.

They then went on to do another marathon the next day.

So far more than £27,000 has been raised, which will be used to help refugees with humanitarian aid and mental health care, as well as providing funds for food and hygiene banks.

Kate said: "I carried on working full time through this, but it became a routine after I finished the run; I'd have a bath with salts, I would then have a recovery shake and use compression boots and have a meal replacement shake.

"The runs have been a mix of treadmill and outdoors and on day 47 out of 101, I did something to my knee and I was terrified that was the end of the challenge.

"There's something quite metaphorical about taking that journey and representing that of a refugee, and as I came towards the end of it I was repeatedly told these wonderful things about being inspirational.

"I thought if people could see that in me, maybe they can understand that a refugee has all those qualities in even greater abundance than I do, because they take a similar journey, but in real conditions and real terms."

Kate believes they've now broken the world record for "most consecutive days to run a marathon distance (female)", which according to Guinness World Records, is currently held by US runner, Alyssa Clark, who completed 95 marathons in 95 consecutive days.