Paralysed at 18, Esmée Gummer ran 5,000 km and finished last on purpose — 76 times

At 18, six weeks before she was due to start dance college, Esmée Gummer was left paralysed from the waist down by complications during routine surgery, and doctors warned she might never walk again. She learned to walk, dance and then run — and at 35 she has just finished The Nation's 5K: a 5,000-km (3,107-mile) journey across the UK and Ireland over 99 consecutive days, averaging more than a marathon a day. Along the way she hosted free, inclusive 5-km run clubs in 76 different cities — a Guinness World Record — welcoming 6,684 participants who could run, jog, walk or use a wheelchair, and deliberately finishing last herself so nobody felt left behind. She climbed the equivalent of seven Everests along the way and raised thousands of pounds for spinal cord injury research, mental health and local causes. 'This record isn't really about me,' she said at the finish in London. 'It's what happens when people show up for each other.'