Kevin Webber swapped Morocco for Epsom back garden to finish his version of Marathon des Sables

AFC Wimbledon fan Kevin Webber was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer five years ago and given only two years to live, he tells Sky Sports News reporter Jeremy Langdon.

That diagnosis changed Kevin’s perspective on life and, when it came to making up a bucket list, the Marathon des Sables (MdS) was top.

The brutal Saharan ultra-marathon is notorious. Normally around 250 kilometres long, it means six days of suffering in desert heat with a pack on your back.

Kevin warmed up with two conventional marathons – against medical advice – while undergoing chemotherapy before running the MdS in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

This year would have been the fifth – and also would have made him the only person to run the event that many times with stage 4 cancer – but coronavirus forced the race in Morocco to be postponed early this month.

So Kevin decided to run it instead in his back garden and round his house in Epsom, Surrey.

He said: “I thought I’m not going to allow cancer to stop me doing things so equally I’m not going to allow coronavirus stopping me doing things either”.

Kevin ran the 2019 race distance of 232km – around 140 miles – and fittingly made it a truly home event with the United Kingdom placed in lockdown.

“It would have been very easy for me to have gone out on the road and run a marathon in a day but that wouldn’t have proved the point. About the solitude. About getting on when you’re on your own. I wanted to prove to people in lockdown that even if you self-isolate you can do things,” he added.

It meant an astonishing 2,700 laps round his house with each lap consisting of only 80 meters. It was not the easiest circuit either. Thirty metres through the garden. Ten metres down the side of the house – twice – together with another 20 meters at the front of the house round his two cars.

“Each day was roughly a marathon,” Kevin explains.

“A marathon on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, a double marathon Wednesday. Thursday was a day off just like in the MdS but I still ran 10km because I run every day. Then on Friday another marathon and Saturday a cheeky little 10km to finish it off.”

It’s hard to compare Surrey with the Sahara but Kevin says there were actually similarities between Epsom and Morocco.

“It was actually a bit like doing the Marathon des Sables,” he continued. “Okay, it wasn’t 50 degrees and no, it wasn’t soft sand and massive dunes but each lap had 16 turns in it and every turn just does your ankles and your hips in and you can never get a rhythm going. Mentally it was just like doing the race.”

He was only thinking of raising £500 but that has already climbed to over £30,000, which will benefit Prostate Cancer UK and The National Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal.

There has also been support from AFC Wimbledon. Good luck videos and support from AFC Academy players in lockdown cheered him. Commercial director Ivor Heller has hailed Kevin as an ‘inspirational character and an incredible human being”.

The man who has run ultra-marathons In Cambodia, Jordan, Spain and Albania and pulled a sledge solo across the Arctic can add his back garden in Epsom to the list.

“You have to teach yourself how to focus when the chips are down,” added Kevin, who is also aiming to run the rescheduled MdS in September.

“I may not be here in September but I sometimes consider myself to be quite lucky in that I’ve had my epiphany, my wake-up call. I know how precious every day is.”

Click here to visit Kevin’s sponsorship page which will benefit Prostate Cancer UK and the National Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal.

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