Cancer survivor running 24 half-marathons in 24 days

Findlay Young is running half-marathons to raise funds for British cancer research.

In the past two weeks Findlay Young has suffered minor sunstroke, sleep deprivation, jet-lag, blisters and has battled through conditions ranging from tropical to arctic.

But these are minor inconveniences for a man who has twice beaten thyroid cancer and is now running 24 half-marathons in 24 consecutive days raising funds for cancer research in Britain.

Mr Young is at the halfway point of his Great World Run, starting his 12th half-marathon around noon today to run from Queens Wharf to St Heliers and back.

He has already completed runs in Iceland, Brazil (two), New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and Alaska (three). Jet lag, lack of sleep and constant time-zone hopping were starting to take their toll.

"The jet lag is definitely starting to kick in but it's not too big an issue," he said from Los Angeles yesterday.

"Most days I would be lucky to get four or five hours' sleep so it is starting to add up."

Mr Young said he had twice had to run two half-marathons on the same day in order to meet his goal of completing 24 in the allotted time.

He said fickle weather conditions were another challenge. In Rio he suffered minor heat stroke after running along Copacabana beach in 35-degree heat. A couple of days later he was "soaked through the skin" in America where "it seemed to rain every day" before he went to Alaska.

"The weather there was pretty nasty and it was so, so cold. Going there from a place like Rio and on the back of the time difference, everything was pretty immense and my times certainly didn't improve."

First diagnosed with cancer in July 2003, Mr Young was treated with radioactive iodine and surgery to remove the tumour from his thyroid.

He said the relief he felt when receiving the all-clear the first time around was "pretty immense". But after completing four half-marathons in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in one day to celebrate his one-year anniversary of being free of the illness, the cancer returned.

Last year he had surgery to remove his thyroid gland which banished the cancer again but his running bug remained. The Great World Run was his way of celebrating life and respecting those suffering the illness and others less fortunate.

"You hear about the stories of survival but also the tragic stories of the people who didn't make it as well.

"So many people in the different countries I have been to have offered their support and have touched me with their experiences with cancer.

"It is the respect I have for these people which drives me."

Mr Young's journey next takes him through Australia, where he will run four half-marathons, before he runs in Singapore, India (two), Dubai, Ethiopia, Greece and the Netherlands.

His final run will be in Britain, where he hopes to complete the world's largest half-marathon - the Great North Run in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was inspired by Auckland's Round the Bays run - on October 1.

Mr Young has so far raised £25,000 ($71,174) for cancer research. His target total is £100,000.