Man from Fleet running 5 marathons in 50 hours for charity

He is raising money for funding for research into a rare degenerative children’s disease

Author: Charlotte FisherPublished 9th Apr 2021
Last updated 9th Apr 2021

Extreme athlete Darren Hardy from Fleet is starting a challenge of a lifetime today (9th April), running five marathons, nonstop, in 50 hours.

Darren was inspired to take on the challenge when he heard about schoolgirl, Aggie Candy-Waters, who was diagnosed with a rare degenerative children’s disease, H-ABC, at the age of five.

Now 12 years old, Aggie who used to run, play and sing is permanently in a wheelchair and is rapidly losing her fine motor skills - meaning she is fed, dressed and carried by her parents.

She is also losing her ability to speak.

During his '5in50' challenge Darren will run continuously without sleeping, carrying everything he needs in a backpack - water, wet kit, warm kit and first aid kit.

The former soldier will begin his run in Poole on the south coast

The 35-year-old former soldier and father of two, who lives in Fleet, will start his challenge from Poole at 8am today and run south along the coast as far as Abbotsbury, west of Weymouth, before turning back to Poole.

Darren explains why he wanted to do this for Aggie and other children affected:

“My daughters are two and four and enjoying all the things I know Aggie used to. I can’t imagine the absolute heartbreak that Aggie’s parents will have gone through learning their beautiful, happy girl was going to decline in this way."

“I immediately got in touch and asked how I could help. It was then that I learned that we could race against time to reach their £1m target to get new life-saving gene therapy developed at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for not only Aggie, but for two more young children called Frankie, age five and Sofia, nine. This was when I came up with the idea of running five marathons in 50 hours, with every penny going towards gene therapy treatment for children with H-ABC; 5in50!”

There are 200 children in the world like Aggie

Aggie was diagnosed with the condition when she was 5-years-old

Most are diagnosed around the age of three or four, when their parents notice that their development is slower than other children of their age.

Ali Candy-Waters, Aggie’s mum, said:

“H-ABC is the world’s rarest brain disease. People simply haven’t heard of it, so in our darkest moments we wonder if we can ever get to our £1m target in time. Then we hear from someone like Darren, and we feel like there could be a chance.”

Darren, a double gold medallist and Warrior Games record breaker completed numerous extreme sports challenges for charity in 2020, raising £24,000.

He explained how he had trained for today's challenge: “I’m preparing for the run by getting up at 4:20 every day at home and hitting the hills, as well as strength work in my home gym”.

You can support Darren and donate to this valuable cause here.