WATCH: Project Endure - pushing the limits, promoting positive mental health

Drew Jonkmans is just an ordinary guy. In September he plans to run from Land's End to John O'Groats, and then cycle back again. This is his story, one as much about positive mental health as it is about athleticism.

Three years ago, Drew Jonkmans was struggling.

He says his life had no direction. He was in a dark place.

There was no ambition, no dream, no hope.

He needed something to reignite a flame and by accident it arrived in the form of running.

From that moment when over a drink a friend bet him that he could not run an ultra-marathon to now, having completed challenges that include the Marathon des Sables and 24 hours running around an athletics track, it has become something of an obsession.

One that has now led to Project Endure, setting out to run the length of Britain, turn around, and cycle back again.

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"I needed something that scared me and excited me"

The plan is to run 50 miles a day from Land’s End to John O’Groats over 20 days, and then come back down in 10 days on the bike.

The project aims to raise awareness about mental health and support two charities: the Becoming X Foundation and Big Moose. Becoming X provides education to disadvantaged communities, using inspiring and powerful personal stories to do so, while Big Moose offers immediate mental health therapy. 

“I really wanted to do something that would make a difference, following my experience at the MDS, when I had a realisation about how powerful our minds are,” he said.

 “I grew a passion for trying to translate that into lessons for other people. That was a big project, which I wanted to do. I needed to come up with something that would grab people's attention, something that hadn't really been done before, something that really, really challenges me, something that scared me and excited me.” 

The idea was born, but it took a chance contact by Ewan Champion-Smith, who will document the journey, for it to spark into a reality.

“I got a message from Ewan, just out of the blue, saying, ‘I've been following your running journey, and I was just wondering if you'd like to catch up and see if I could document any of your stories’. 

“We went out for a coffee, and I think it was about five minutes when I was like, ‘stop what you're saying. I've got a perfect idea.’”

The logistics of a challenge like this are immense.

From safety, to fueling and recovery, to being able to capture it all to ensure it receives as much exposure as possible.

Chasing a feeling

In the inevitable low moments, Drew will be able to pull from bigger lessons learnt on previous challenges.

“One was at MDS was during the long stage where everything clicked for me after I was just in a really bad place, like my legs just felt like they couldn't move any further.”

It was about 40k into a long stage, 52C.

“I was hallucinating. Didn't know where I was. And then suddenly I managed to get to a checkpoint, read some personal letters from my family. I sat myself down and just spoke to myself for about 10 minutes and got myself in the right headspace again. And literally, for the rest of that day, I was on fire, my legs had just come back to me, it was such a strange feeling. I've been chasing that feeling ever since.”

It is also about showing that an ordinary person with an ordinary story can push themselves in the right way, use the right mental tricks and lessons to get through those obstacles to achieve something great. 

“I'm far from being an elite athlete or anything like that, so it allows for that connection from the audience. They can realise that they can do the same thing if they pick up the same lessons and push themselves in the right way. The topic of support will be huge as well. 

“There's no way I'll be able to do this project by myself. I'll need everyone else's support, and my family and friends and Ewan while he's there. I'll need everyone to push me in the right direction, because you can't do these things by yourself at the end of the day.”

The pair will be together on the road, sleeping in a van.

There is little comfort.

It is all stripped back and the help of corporate sponsors mean that every penny donated can go directly to the charities.

Storytelling now has a major role in grabbing people’s attentions, not only to maximise donations and raise exposure of the issues being addressed by the charities, but also to inspire others to set off on their own challenges.

That is where Ewan comes in.

Success or failure, it does not matter.

“I's about how Drew responds,” said Ewan.

“It's about how we respond to events that happen in our life. It's about how we respond to the feelings that it brings up. So Drew could complete it and it could be incredible. It could be one the biggest thing he's ever achieved in his life. Or Drew could get injured on the first day. It doesn't matter. Obviously, I want to see Drew achieve, I want to see him elated. But in that vein, it's about how he responds. He’s going to have to overcome challenges either way. 

“The film is about reframing our approach to these challenges and how we respond to them, and really getting across that support is the most important thing. We need to live in community.

"We need to be able to share things with people. Obviously, talk therapy, like you get with Big Moose, is one step that people feel safe to take because sometimes people don't have that in their community, they don't have a partner or a parent or someone close to them that they can actually be vulnerable and honest with.”

Introducing Big Moose

Promoting the fact that people in Guernsey can access the support that Big Moose offers has been a huge driver behind the project.

“It essentially came about through a conversation with a friend where they informed me that there's actually no accessible therapy service available in Guernsey anymore,” said Drew.

“If you were someone that was really struggling and you're in a really dark place, and you went to go and find help, your only options were to have the financial resources available to pay for therapy, or if you went to a GP, you'd be referred, but you’re going to be hit with a long waiting list, so immediate and high quality support just isn't here on the island at the moment. 

“When we realised that, we just realised that that's just not acceptable, we're not sure how it's gone under the radar. That's something that we really care about and that's when we found Big Moose.

"We're introducing people to this proper, high quality support, this holistic therapy service that we can bring to Guernsey and make islanders aware that this is available for them. So essentially, if there's someone that's really struggling, they can get in contact with Big Moose, they'll hear from them within 24 hours, and then from there, they'll have a session with therapists booked within seven days. So that gives that instant access to really high quality support that islanders need and deserve to have.”


For more on Big Moose: https://bigmoosecharity.co

For more on the Becoming X Foundation: https://www.becomingxfoundation.org/

Keep track of Drew’s preparations here