Brothers run 100 miles along Cornish coastline for grandad
A pair of brothers from Cornwall have run 100 miles in memory of their grandad.
Luke and Stephen Stone lost their grandad, William Doran, to Parkinson's last year.
Now they’re taking on a 100-mile ultramarathon along the Cornish coastline to raise money for Parkinson’s UK.
They started at 8am on Saturday 25 May in Land’s End, and finished in Padstow just after 11pm on Sunday 26 May.
The brothers spoke to ITV West Country before the run.
Luke said: “We’ve done a few running challenges before and seeing our grandad through the struggle really shows how much love our family has and determination and grit. We wanted to put that into a challenge.
“We’ve done a marathon before, 50 miles seemed a bit too close to a marathon so 100 miles just seemed like the unfathomable idea that we could do.”
Stephen said: “Our hope is to raise as much money as possible to help those living with Parkinson’s. The right treatment and early diagnosis is key to helping people with Parkinson’s live a more fulfilling life, we hope to raise money to help research earlier detection and better treatments.”
“Our grandad is a true inspiration for this event. After struggling in hospital barely eating or drinking anything for four weeks, he was discharged so that he could pass away at home.
“With pneumonia in both lungs he struggled and laboured every breath and we did not expect him to last long. But this man had different ideas - he lasted four days.
“Our grandad was always a positive person! He wasn't always the most talkative but when he did speak it was normally to make people laugh and smile!
“If we have been gifted with just a fraction of this man’s genes, with his positive attitude and ‘never quit’ spirit, we will get through this run!”
The boys will be followed by their family for support, stopping every 10 miles for food and water.
Luke said: “When we first started training we didn’t know if we could do it and that’s really what we wanted to capture in that challenge - pushing ourselves way above anything we thought we could do.
“The biggest challenge has been trying to fit in the training - it’s about sacrificing evenings and weekends.
"There are a lot of emotions there, especially due to the cause. [If Grandad was here now] he’d tell us not to do it, but he’d be very proud.”
We caught up with the boys on the finish line (footage from Stephen Stone).