“I’ve cried with laughter more in three months than I have in the last six years. There was sadness that I might not experience something like that again but towards the end I was probably ready to wake up and not have to run over 50km a day. There was a lot of relief that we just got to the end in one piece.”
Throughout the tough moments on his journey Jack would often look to his crew – Fred, Dan, Devin, Jake and Jordan – for guidance.
He would receive video messages from loved ones in his attempts to battle through those moments where doubts lingered, while John Barnes and Federico Chiesa were also among those to send support.
“It wasn’t a journey just about me and hopefully I tried to put that across,” Jack said. “Obviously, I am at the core of it, but it’s not an easy job for the lads to get me through each day safely and in one piece.
“The lads were unbelievable; for example, Jordan has been bred in an environment at Liverpool that’s the most professional you can imagine, where his thought process each day is about what he can do to help this athlete perform at their very best.
“He was literally the first person in my van and the last person in my van every day. He was always thinking about what he could do to make my life easier – even down to finding launderettes and folding all my clothes and putting them away for me. It was never in his job description to do any of that. There was no job he wouldn’t do for the cause and the same is to be said for all the lads.
“It was pretty special to foster an environment where we were all so supportive of one another to achieve the goal.”
Jack’s attitude in the face of his diagnosis has proved nothing short of inspiring to those both close and following from afar on social media.
But the journey, he admits, has not been a linear one from the day he was told he would be lucky to live past 40, to the man who stood triumphantly at the southern tip of India.
“There’s been loads of really difficult moments,” Jack added. “I’ve skirted with depression on quite a few separate occasions. I think I’ve got an innate ability to not dwell on things, though.
