Jack Hewitt, our ‘Eight for a Mate!’ marathon legend, returns to the fray this Sunday (4th May) after a spell out of action because of injury.
He’ll be running in the Brooks Adelaide Marathon in South Australia – pretty comfortable in the belief that he’s now recovered from a torn tendon in his left ankle.
He’s been telling his followers on Instagram that recovery had been a bit touch and go until he gave that ankle a thorough workout in a half marathon at Crescent Head, New South Wales, a week or so ago.
“Thankfully the ankle gave me no problems at all. Tate [his girlfriend] joined me for the start then I went on my own out and back along a single road. Not the most interesting, and there was a horrific hill right at the end back up to the AirBnB, but it was a decent run.”
He had to rejig his schedule while he was injured – missing out on a trip to a marathon in Canberra, the federal capital, on 13th April in order to give his ankle time to heal but slotting another Canberra run in at the end of his schedule on 15th November.
Jack, a Brit who went to live Down Under in January 2024, has promised to run eight marathons – one in each state and territory of Australia – in the space of a single year to raise money for both the ME Association and ME/CFS Australia.
He’s taken on this huge challenge because he was utterly shocked by the condition he found his best friend from university, Freddie Denison-Smith, was in when he returned to Britain to pay him a visit in June last year. Freddie has severe ME and needs round-the-clock nursing at his home in Buckinghamshire.
Jack completed the first marathon in his ‘Eight for a Mate!' charity series in Tasmania on 11th January.
Photos show Jack when he was at Cambridge University with his best friend Freddie-Denison Smith, the route of the Brooks Adelaide Marathon mostly along the River Torrens which will be contested by thousands of runners this Sunday (4th May) and Jack enjoying the Hobart Marathon in Tasmania earlier this year – the first in his spectacular series of eight marathons, which he is running over a single year for the ME Association and ME/CFS Australia.
We hope to be covering Jack’s participation in the Adelaide Marathon in more detail on the MEA’s Facebook page this weekend.
If you would like to support Jack’s fundraiser for the ME Association, please visit his fundraising page at
Jack's Eight for a Mate! Challenge
Fundraising for ME Association
ME/CFS Australia has branded Jack’s marathon series as their ‘500for500’ – based on an estimate that there are 500,000 people with ME/CFS on the vast continent and the result that could be achieved if everyone of those donated at least one Australian dollar to the cause.
You can donate to ME/CFS Australia here:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/mecfsmarathonsaus
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Volunteer, The ME Association
fundraising@meassociation.org.uk
