Teenager finishes five ultramarathons in five days

A Jersey teenager has completed a fundraising challenge to run five ultra marathons in five days.

Emily Paton, 14, ran 50k (31 miles) each day to cover a total of 250k (155.3 miles) across the island.

She did it to raise funds for the cancer charity ABC Jersey, which helps islanders affected by the disease.

Emily has raised more than £2,200 and in a post of social media the charity said it was “blown away by her determination and heart”.

After completing the challenge on Saturday, Emily said: “I remember sitting in my kitchen that morning on day three and thinking I don’t know how I’m going to do this especially because it rained so hard on day two – it was really quite difficult.

“It was absolutely amazing just to get it done… I really enjoy pushing myself, breaking boundaries, breaking limits.”

She chose to raise money for breast cancer after her mum’s friend who had the disease.

“My three goals going into this was have fun, make a difference and inspire other people, which I really hope I’ve done,” she said.

“All of the pain, all of the late nights, all of the sleepless nights because my muscles were in so much pain it doesn’t compare to what breast cancer patients have been through.”

Emily was supported on her runs by friends and family. Her mum, Sue, joined in on parts of the challenge and cheered her on.

“She [Emily] is just the most determined person,” she said. “If she sets her mind to do something she’s always going to do it.

“I’m super proud of her because it’s a friend of mine [who] got breast cancer, so that’s who she thought of to do it for and I’m just super proud of her choosing that.”

The money raised will help pay for financial, practical and emotional support as well as services like reconstruction tattooing.

Members of ABC Jersey cheered Emily over the finish line.

Tracey Carter from the charity said “I think I actually cried” when she heard about Emily’s challenge, adding “we need younger people to get involved”.

“We have ladies that are going through it who are quite young, hopefully not as young as Emily, so for her to do something like this for us, we’re just blown away by it,” she said.