Jordan Adams ran 33 marathons in 33 days across every county in Ireland to honour 12 family members lost to frontotemporal dementia. He began with the London Marathon while carrying a 25kg fridge to highlight the hardship faced by families carrying a gene linked to generative brain disease. On the final day in Dublin’s Merrion Square Park, Jordan was joined by his brother Cian Adams and sister Kennedy Adams. Thousands of supporters gathered to cheer them as they crossed the finish line under sunny skies. Jordan described dementia as isolating and unsupported, recalling his mother Geraldine’s diagnosis in 2010 and her decline. Geraldine died at 52, and Jordan said each sibling had a 50% chance of inheriting FTD.
"Jordan Adams (31) took on the challenge to run 33 marathons in 33 days in every county in Ireland to honour 12 family members he lost to dementia. He started with the London Marathon, which he completed carrying a 25kg fridge on his back to highlight the hardship faces by his family who carry a gene that causes generative brain disease."
"Jordan was joined today by his brother, Cian Adams (25), and sister Kennedy Adams, who ran the 33rd marathon alongside him. Thousands of people, with many travelling from across the country, turned out to welcome and cheer on the siblings, who grew up in the UK but have Irish roots, as they crossed the finish line just before 2.30pm under the sunny sky in Dublin."
""We've been on a long, long journey as a family," Jordan told the supporters, speaking after the marathon. "My dad here behind us is a massive part of that. "I know I talk for a lot of people here when it comes to navigating the heartbreak and devastation, when it comes to living with dementia, how isolated and unsupported, unseen, unheard we feel as families.""
""That's exactly how I felt as a 15-year-old boy when my dad walked into the front room of our family home on June 2010 and told me that our beautiful, amazing mum, Geraldine was terminally ill with frontotemporal dementia." "Watching her no longer recognise us as her children, no longer recognise my dad as her husband, was heartbreaking.""
Read at Irish Independent
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]