Belgian to run 50 km daily for a year to combat rare disease

Belgian ultrarunner Jack Desille plans to run 50 km every day for 365 days next year. His goal is to break an endurance record to raise awareness of Marfan syndrome and raise money for the battle against the disease.

Marfan syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue - the body's “support tissue”. It usually causes complications involving the blood vessels and the aorta, but can also affect the eyes, heart, bones, lungs and central nervous system. Jack Desille chose to support the battle against this specific condition because a friend's child recently died of Marfan syndrome at the age of 13.

This is not the first major sporting challenge that the 60-year-old Desille is taking on. The athlete, who overcame pancreatic cancer in 2019, for instance cycled across Belgium from March to July and completed a series of “Relays for Life” to support the Belgian Cancer Foundation. Last year, he covered 523 km on foot between De Panne, where he lives, and Liège. “Every year, I set myself a different challenge,” he says.

On 1 January 2025, Desille will set off at 10 am from the Leopold I Esplanade in De Panne for his first 50 km of the year. He will also run in amongst others Nieuwpoort, Bruges, Brussels, Jodoigne, Rochefort, Barvaux-sur-Ourthe and Arlon. In June, he will go to France, where he will also complete a series of stages. In total, he plans to cover 18,250 km.

^{#FlandersNewsService | Senior man worn running in the forest © BELGA PHOTO IMAGEBROKER}