British athlete runs 101 marathons for Syrian refugees, breaks world record

A British endurance athlete has broken a world record after running a marathon every day for 101 consecutive days to raise money and awareness for refugees.

Kate Jayden on Sunday completed her goal of running 2,620 miles - the approximate distance a refugee would travel from the Syrian city of Aleppo to the UK.

The 35-year-old broke the female world record for the most marathons in consecutive days previously held by American Alyssa Clark, who ran 95 marathons in 95 days in 2020, according to Guinness World Records.

She has raised over £35,000 ($45,735) for the Refugee Council, Trussell Trust and The Hygiene Bank charities since she began the challenge on 1 January.

“The main thing was always about the journey from Syria and knowing how much money was being raised makes me cry. That's the bit I cared about when I crossed that line,” Jayden told the BBC.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by The Village Stores Hartington (@thevillagestoreshartington)

The athlete has raised over £35,000 ($45,735) for the Refugee Council, Trussell Trust and The Hygiene Bank charities since she began.

Jayden said she also hopes to help others push “beyond the boundaries” and realise their potential.

“I hope to… help other autistic athletes see that they too are not limited by [their] diagnosis [and] to help other LGBT athletes see themselves represented,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.

The runner could wait for almost a year before her record is confirmed by the Guinness World Records, according to the BBC.

Over five million Syrians have been made refugees since the Syrian war began in 2011, when President Bashar al-Assad violently cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protesters.

More than 500,000 lives have been lost since, largely due to bombardment by the regime and its ally Russia.

Hayden's mammoth feat follows the British government's announcement of a new policy to send people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda as their applications are processed - a move refugee campaigners have called "cruel and nasty".