A World Record for Brain Injury Awareness

MISSION IN-POSSIBLE: ONE MASTER INSTRUCTOR'S 100 ULTRAMARATHONS FOR BRAIN INJURY CHARITIES

DAVID "JACKO" JACKSON — OA MASTER INSTRUCTOR & FORMER NOTTINGHAM RUGBY PLAYER

For four days a week, since the end of May, Jacko has started his morning the same way: lacing up, and heading out to run another 50km.

He's an OA Master Instructor, but before that, he was Nottingham Rugby's most capped player and all-time top try-scorer, with 316 appearances and 102 tries to his name. That career ended abruptly in 2013, when a brain injury sustained on the pitch forced him to retire. The years that followed were disorienting — and it took him seven years just to run his first marathon again.

Breathwork and running became central to how he rebuilt, physically and mentally, in the years after. Now, with his own recovery behind him, he's taken on something few would attempt even once: an ultramarathon, every single day, for 100 consecutive days, at 25 locations the length of the UK.

He calls it Mission IN-possible. "Everyone thinks this challenge is impossible. But I believe in IN-possible," he said before setting off. The goal is £1 million for two brain injury charities, Headway UK and Head for Change — causes chosen because of what his own recovery taught him about who does, and doesn't, get support after a brain injury.

By day 81, Jacko had surpassed the existing 80-day benchmark for consecutive ultramarathons — a result currently pending official verification. But for him, the record was never really the point. As Head for Change founder Alix Popham put it: "This is an unbelievable challenge, and full credit to Jacko for taking it on."

With the challenge due to finish back where it started, at Caernarfon Castle on September 5th, Jacko has just days left on the road. It's been a long, hot, and at times brutal 100 days — but for someone who once wondered whether normal life was possible again, this is a different kind of finish line.