A British runner who finished an 850-mile route from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of Cornwall said he was speechless after Harry Styles sent £2,000 to his fundraising page, according to BBC Radio Leicester. Laurence Denis, 32, from Hinckley in Leicestershire, completed the JOGLE crossing in 23 days, finishing at Land’s End on June 12 after setting off from John O’Groats on May 20. That works out to roughly 37 miles a day, the equivalent of about one and a half marathons every day for more than three weeks.
Denis ran in memory of his mother, Pauline, who died in 2020 after a 10-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer, and his father, Phil, who died of a heart attack in 2023. The Styles donation lifted his total past his original £8,000 target. The fund has since climbed beyond £12,500, with proceeds going to Neuroendocrine Cancer UK, the British Heart Foundation, Mind, and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
“I’m just a normal guy,” Denis said to the BBC. “It doesn’t feel real. It’s been a whirlwind.”
Denis was in his late 20s when his mother died. The grief, he said, sent him into a dark place. “I quickly fell on the wrong side of life and before long everything I was going through got too much,” he told BBC reporters Sonia Kataria and Ady Dayman. “I felt like I was alone. I felt like I couldn’t speak to anyone, which is quite sad because I had a lot of people around me. It’s no shade on anyone.”
He laced up his shoes to escape the pain and finished his first marathon later that year. When his father died three years later, the panic attacks and sleepless nights returned. “My grief was suffocating,” he said. “I just felt like, why? I was in so much pain, but I kept putting on a front.”
Running became his way through it, an experience familiar to many runners managing depression and grief. He founded a weekly running club in Hinckley called Let’s Run Den and set himself a string of charity challenges, including a run across England, a route drawn in the shape of a heart, and a 24-hour stint on a treadmill. The trek from John O’Groats to Land’s End was the biggest test yet.
While preparing for the run, Denis listened to Styles’ music and reached out to the singer’s team, knowing Styles is a serious runner himself. “I was listening to Harry Styles, and I know he’s a keen runner,” Denis said. “I didn’t think anything of it and then all of a sudden, it blew up. Harry Styles’ mum even shared what I was doing.”
A message from Styles’ team came soon after. “We saw your videos and love what you’ve been doing,” it read. “We’d love to invite you to a Together, Together Wembley Stadium show of your choosing. Let us know when works best, and we’ll get it sorted.” The £2,000 donation followed.
The crossing itself tested Denis in every way runners know too well. He picked up a knee injury early on and pushed through rain, blisters, and stretches of doubt. “Full of ups and downs, mentally battling, with the physical pain of the blisters on my feet and overwhelming feeling of what I’m up against and what I’m putting my body through,” he said.
He credits the team around him and the comments he read on his breaks for getting him to the finish. “The challenge gave me a bit of a purpose to push myself and get out of my own headspace,” he said. “Running has saved my mental health and a reason why I’m here today.”
Denis said he hoped his story would reach others struggling with grief or mental health. “I don’t want people to go through what I went through,” he said. He also thanked everyone who tracked his progress and cheered him on along the way. “Honestly, I can’t thank everyone enough. You spurred me on and kept me going.”
0 Comments