Despite nearly getting stuck in a storm in Jersey, a Singapore-based man successfully has completed the “gruelling” southernmost marathon in support of the island’s domestic abuse charity – becoming one of few to have held up a Jersey flag on the seventh continent.

Thom Hennessy is, to his knowledge, the first Jersey runner to complete the marathon.

Thom has so far raised over £3,300 for Freeda (formerly the Jersey Women’s Refuge), with most donors based outside of Jersey.

With the original fundraiser taking place in December – when many are already strapped for cash – he is aiming to keep his fundraising page open until mid-March.

“When I got back to the office last week, there was an envelope with $180 that people had just collected in the office. And there was a letter from a girl – I didn’t know, but she had been a victim of abuse, so she wrote down a few notes, which was quite touching.

“You see people, you think you know people, but you don’t always know what’s going on.”

Other Ice Marathon runners have also donated to his fundraiser.

“Only” 12°C temperatures

Thom said that participants had been “extremely lucky with the weather”.

Having anticipated temperatures as low as -25°C and strong crosswinds, he said, it was “only -12°C” on the course, a 10 km loop that participants repeated four times.

“It was interesting, because every step you take, you’re sort of pushing the snow away every step. And the more that people go around the loop, it gets worse as time goes on.

“So quite gruelling from that perspective.

“And then, of course, once people stretch out, I found myself quite alone for parts of it, but nothing but white snow. And that in itself was another thing, because you know you’re running, but you don’t think you’re getting anywhere.

“Even on the last one, I could see the finishing gantry, but every step just didn’t seem to be getting any closer.”

With strong sunglasses, the brightness did occasionally come through, and Thom also had to get used to “a strange sensation of being very hot and very cold at the same time, depending on the wind and where we were running and what have you”.

Thom finished the run in 5:52:57.

‘You need to go now‘

But Thom’s travel plans from Jersey to Antarctica were almost scuppered by Storm Darragh, which grounded flights from the island. With a flight booked on Saturday morning, Thom had been in the Work Café when he first heard about the storm.

“This woman said to me: ‘You know about the weather?’ And I went: ‘No.’

“She said, ‘Oh, this storm is coming in.’ I said, ‘No, I’ve heard nothing about it.’

“Then there was a guy opposite me who knew I was going to Antarctica, and he went: ‘You need to go now.’

“So I had to look at the weather, and sure enough, it seems to be getting bad. So I rushed home, I just grabbed my bag, threw a load of stuff in it. I went up to the airport.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m supposed to be leaving tomorrow. Can you please get me to London tonight?’

“And he said no. I was on British Airways. He said, ‘You could try the others, Easyjet and everything else’ – but nothing, nothing, nothing.

“I thought, ‘What am I going to do? Because if I miss that flight, then I miss the next flight.’

“So I went back up to the chap at the check in desk, and I said, ‘Look, I’ve tried everything.’ And he rang British Airways, and then he said: ‘I’ve got this chap. He needs to get to the South Pole.’

“The guy goes, ‘Oh, thank you so much. You’ve been super helpful.’ I think his words were, ‘It seems common sense has come through.’

“Then next thing was, he prints out the boarding ticket. So he gets me to Gatwick. He gets me to get the last seat on the last plane that left Jersey before the storm.”

The rest of the journey went well, Thom said, and he was in Chile in time to run a half-marathon “just to make sure all the legs were working”.

“We actually got sunburned that day.”

Supporting Freeda

Freeda aims to protect people from domestic abuse – through their safe house as well as with community support and education projects.

Being able to help out women and families who are escaping domestic abuse over Christmas was “the whole reason for doing it”, Thom said.

“I think it’s all about people trying to understand what these ladies and families are going through, and that on a day to day basis, we don’t know people’s problems.

“We never really know what they’re going through. And I think once you know things are not going well for them, … I think it’s that you’ve done something to help somebody even if you don’t know what their problems are.

“Some of the feedback I’ve had from a couple of people, it’s sad to hear, but good to hear.

“And if we as a society can educate the the abusers, for want of a better term, and make life easier for these ladies and the families, that would be fantastic.”

DONATE…

You can support Thom’s fundraiser on JustGiving.