Cambridge man attempting marathon distance on a space hopper
And you thought running a marathon was difficult? Well, spare a thought for Lee Welham, a Big Issue seller from Chesterton, who is in the middle of a fundraising challenge to travel the distance of a marathon on a space hopper – a task he hopes to complete by the end of the month.
It comes a year after Lee, who was previously homeless, accepted the challenge of running the London Marathon with no prior training whatsoever, just to prove that it could be done, and to raise funds. He says: “Last year I ran the actual London Marathon for charity, with no physical training.
“I’m semi-unfit, I smoke tobacco and eat too much takeaway, and the students said it was impossible so I challenged them to raise as much money as they could and I would run the marathon. Anyway, I completed it in just over five hours, was back at work the next day and everyone was really shocked.
“This year I wasn’t able to enter the main marathon, so I decided to check out world records and silly attempts and no one had done a space hopper marathon. I thought I could at least have a go at that.”
Through his work, Lee meets lots of students in Cambridge. “I’m quite lucky,” he said. “I occasionally get to do talks at some of the colleges about poverty and street homelessness. The community round here really do rally behind me. I’m very fortunate. That’s why I try and advertise so much about homelessness because while I’ve got this voice...”
Lee, who is originally from Great Yarmouth, recalls that the first night he tried out a shorter distance on the space hopper, only to find it “really painful”. “I bounced for about five miles and then bounced and walked for the remaining 2.8,” he explains. “Then I had to stop. My legs literally wouldn’t work.
“Then I tried to start this Saturday [October 8] on Parker’s Piece but there was loads of people and I wanted a bit of privacy, so I ended up bouncing around near my normal area and I managed to achieve another three miles. So I’m up to 10.8 miles now, and I’ve got the rest of the month to complete the challenge.”
He adds: “I did think I could do it all in one go but obviously the fact that I didn’t train and the fact that I’m majorly unfit...”
Lee has a GoFundMe page (bit.ly/3MiWY6T) for his 26.2-mile challenge which is now up to £955. The goal is £2,000. His inspiration for the challenge was Steven Payne, who bounced across the Alps on a space hopper in 2018, and the charity he is raising money for is the Big Issue Foundation.
“The Big Issue is a big part of my life,” says Lee. “I’m a franchisee of The Big Issue so basically I’m the manager of the whole county – I have been for a few years. And what I do is really important. I couldn’t get a job; I was homeless for 264 days. I was willing to work but had no ID and no address, which meant most places wouldn’t take me.”
Lee is also part of Cambridge organisation It Takes a City, a homelessness charity which launched in 2018. “I get to do some of the meetings where we’re trying to solve homeless problems,” he notes, “and obviously I’ve been in the situation of being homeless. I’ve been in the system and I truly believe that safety nets don’t really help us – they keep us in that place.
“But opportunities work and some of the vendors I’ve got to meet over the years have got work and they’ve moved on. I think that’s the key to ending poverty.”
[Read more: Emmaus Cambridge maintenance manager takes on Everest hiking challenge for charity]
Lee, who plans on attempting more challenges in the future, is still distributing copies of The Big Issue but is planning to leave that behind in the coming months and is hoping to start his own market stall next year. In the meantime, he is also working in a sweet shop.
“I genuinely want to say thank you [to the public] for investing in me,” he says. “For every sale that I ever took off people, I spent the money wisely and I’ve invested in my future and I thank everyone for giving me a second chance.”
