Cambridge born Jonny Huntington completed a 370km run from Manchester to London proving that people with disabilities can break barriers. Jonny joined the army in 2013, training at Sandhurst to become an officer. In June 2014, just eight weeks after commissioning into the British Army, Jonny was in the gym when he suffered a devastating stroke.
The neurological damage left Jonny paralysed down one side.
It took years of rehab before Jonny was able to fully walk again, and even then, he was left with restricted movement down his left side.
Beginning on 30th October, Jonny ran over 370km from Manchester to London, taking 11 days.
Jonny said: “The last day was cool, running through London, surrounded by friends and sponsors, going past some of our nation’s most iconic sights, two days before remembrance, was very cool!
“The whole trip was incredible in terms of the amount of support we got from everyone – all the mates that had us to stay, everyone who came out to keep me company on the run, and all of the partners and supporters throughout this whole project – it’s really incredible.
“It was probably about as hard as I expected – I’m pretty familiar with this kind of stuff, so I knew what to expect. As an athlete, it’s always good to see that years of training pays off and proving that is always a good confidence boost for stuff coming next.
“The worst bit was not being able to explore some of the cool places we saw because we didn’t have time and were too tired – I’ve never been into the centre of Birmingham properly before, and the canal section near the centre where we finished on night 4 looked awesome.
“It would have been really cool to have had time and energy to be able to have explored some of the restaurants and bars there instead of having to go straight home.”
Jonny’s goal is to prove to others with disabilities that they can go on to achieve things that haven’t been attempted before.
Next year, Jonny will attempt to become the world’s first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole, and this challenge will be part of his preparations for the mental and physical feat of endurance.
He said: “For Antarctica, it’s a good initial confidence booster and sets me up for this training season in the right way. I know I’m fit enough, I just need to go and execute, so it’s a good prover for stuff later this year and early next year.”
Jonny was born in Cambridge, where he lived until he went to university at 18-years-old, and subsequently joined the military.
He now lives in Kingsbridge, Devon.
