Ed, who leads Cygnet Health Care’s specialist schools for young service-users, will compete in the six-day ‘ultra-marathon’ with his identical twin brother Ben. Known as the ‘toughest foot race on earth’, the Marathon des Sables requires participants to navigate harsh terrain and blistering heat along the epic route, including a gruelling 50 mile stretch on the fourth day. In 2021, temperatures reached 58°C during the sand dune stage.
Ed and Ben will be fully self-sufficient throughout the race, carrying their food, clothing, sleeping bag and equipment on their backs. At night, they will sleep in communal tents in a temporary village with their fellow racers. The route covers 150 miles of the Moroccan Sahara desert and is kept a secret until the day before the event. Participants are told to plan their food intake carefully and visit a podiatrist to prepare their feet for the unforgiving trek across sand and rock.
Ed said: “I’m really looking forward to facing this incredible challenge with my brother. Having never competed in any sort of marathon before, I’ve been training hard for over a year to prepare to tackle this ‘ultra-marathon’. Recently, that has included running in a heat chamber at Sheffield Hallam University to acclimatise myself to the high temperatures.”
He added: “I’m very proud to be raising money for Bluebell Wood, an excellent hospice in Rotherham. It has always been important to me to support children in difficult situations, something I try to do in my job at Cygnet helping young people with mental health needs to stay on top of their education while in hospital.”
Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice offers palliative care, family and sibling support, respite and physiotherapy for children and young people with a shortened life expectancy and complex medical needs. Ed and Ben hope to raise as much money as they can to help support this essential work.
Ed and Ben’s JustGiving page can be found here.