Christmas cancer diagnosis leads to maths teacher taking on "the toughest thing" he's ever done

Robin Hurst took on the 496km challenge to raise funds for Cancer Research, after his long-term friends, sisters Dawn Hurst (no relation) and Helen White, were both diagnosed with cancer within a week of each other just before Christmas.

The running challenge involved Robin adding a distance of 1km per day - so he started at 1km on January 1, and ended at 31km on January 31, making a total of 496km in all.

It meant that for more than half a month, Robin was running the equivalent of a half-marathon every day.

What's even more remarkable is that the Atherton dad-of-one had to fit it around his full-time job as a maths teacher at Bedford High School in Leigh.

As the runs got longer, he had to split them in in two which he did either side of his school day. This necessitated 5am starts for the first part of the run, and then continuing it after work, as well as running in all weathers including snow and ice.

To put it in perspective, 42.1k is a marathon, and over the course of the month Robin has done over 10 times that.

Robin, 52, said: "It was the toughest thing I have ever done. The constant 5am 10 mile runs was something else.

"I had to plan it really well so I could fit it in. It really does challenge the mind as well as the body."

His fund-raising page can be found on JustGiving under ‘Robin's 496km for Cancer Research UK.’