The School recently had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Robert Young, a renowned endurance athlete, who aims to address mental health issues through running. His maxim is ‘bringing hope through running,’ something that was conclusively demonstrated in the Senior School assembly and lunchtime talk. When pressed for what drives him, Robert instinctively responded with: ‘the hope that my story and account will help just one student here.’

Last year Robert ran 370 marathons and ultra-marathons, and recently broke the world record for the greatest distance run without sleep: 373 miles in 88 hours. However it was the account of his traumatic childhood which students found most humbling and eye-opening. Students were fascinated to learn of how a traumatic upbringing can be the catalyst for such monumental change and fuel a drive to inspire.

The visit was organised by the School Council and gave a fascinating insight into how a person can use their past experiences in order to realise personal goals. This fits in with the wider School Council aims of addressing mental health and form reps asking for a diversity of inspiring speakers on the assembly rota.

Adopting a comic and casual tone, Robert told boys how his wife bet him 20p that he could not run a marathon, “so the next day I ran my first marathon”. Robert’s goal in the upcoming months is to break the world record for a crossing of Canada – he aims to lower the record from 18 months to roughly five months. He admitted that if finances were more secure, he would be able to tackle more events and inspire more people.

We would like to thank Robert Young for taking the time to come in and present a truly inspirational story that resonated with the audience.