00:00 that is something you can't train for, you can't simulate how you're going to feel at the point at
00:05 which the plane flies off. Because at that point there really is like no one for a few hundred
00:13 kilometres." A former British para-athlete will run a mammoth ultramarathon from Manchester to
00:19 London next week. Elite para-athlete and skier Johnny Huntington will be taking on this challenge
00:25 in preparation for his attempt to become the world's first disabled person to ski solo to
00:30 the South Pole next year. After suffering a stroke in 2014, Johnny was paralysed down one side of his
00:37 body and after extensive rehab has gained some movement back. The ultramarathon from Manchester
00:43 to the capital will test the resilience of his body by putting it through similar stresses he
00:47 will feel on his expedition in 2024. The ski to the South Pole will be the first time someone with a
00:54 disability has ever attempted to ski solo and unsupported across 911 kilometres of the Antarctic
01:01 and it is anticipated it will take him 40 days. We caught up with Johnny just before he set off
01:07 on the challenge to complete the ultramarathon from Manchester to London. "I'm really passionate
01:12 about sort of trying to encourage people to look at their motivations, self-belief and resilience
01:21 and how trying to improve those things sort of can help their day to day. And so for me,
01:26 the run is kind of a really good opportunity to obviously get around. I see it as like you lead,
01:30 by example, you do something hard, people can see you doing it. I think it's quite a powerful
01:35 kind of tool in that respect as well. My injury was purely physical. You know, I didn't have any
01:40 cognitive issues as a result of the brain injury or anything like that. So because it's sort of a
01:45 physical injury, there's that element of me that really wanted to kind of push the injury and be
01:50 like, okay, if this is my limiting factor, let's see how far we can push this. I think there's a
01:57 lot to be gained from seeing people doing hard things. The physical side of it is simply going
02:06 to be that my leg is probably about half as strong as it should be. I basically need to make sure
02:11 that I'm as robust as possible to allow my injured side to do 40-ish days in those conditions,
02:20 dragging really heavy weight, etc. All the training I'm doing over the next 12-13 months
02:24 is specifically designed to mitigate all of these factors. During the ultramarathon,
02:30 Johnny is hoping to raise money for multiple charities, including the Armed Forces Paris
02:35 No-Sport Team, and along the way will be visiting schools on his route to show local children that
02:40 anything is possible with self-belief and determination. One hears and reads a lot about
02:46 mental health issues, particularly in young men, and I feel there is hopefully some benefit that
02:52 people can have from what I'm doing now, which is all grounded from my own experiences going through
02:57 injury and rehabilitation. Coming from someone who's lived through those experiences,
03:03 it is more meaningful talking about mental health because there is that element of lived experience.
03:08 I would hate for someone to go through what I went through and feel like they couldn't talk to someone.
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