'I was paralysed - now I'm running 5,000km'

Esmee Gummer dreamed of becoming a professional dancer. At 18, and just six weeks before she was due to start dance college, complications following surgery left her paralysed from the waist down and unsure if she would ever walk again.

Now 35, she has swapped life at her home in Hackney, east London, for a campervan as she attempts to run 5,000km (3,107 miles) around the UK and Ireland.

She is leading a free 5km (3.1 mile) run club in every British city, as well as Dublin, as part of her project – The Nation's 5k – to inspire people to "say yes to movement before it's too late".

Since setting off from Inverness in June, she has consumed countless carbohydrate gels and worn out at least five pairs of trainers.

A support crew drives the van between cities, but Gummer, originally from Heybridge, Essex, is making the journey on foot, running for up to seven hours a day as she aims to complete the challenge in 99 days.

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Gummer has ticked off more than 50 cities so far and says she has received a warm welcome everywhere she has been.

A large crowd turned out to welcome her back to her home county when she arrived in Colchester.

"People were coming along because they were like, 'She's from Essex and we've got to do this with her,' so for sure I felt the difference with how people showed up and just how amazing everybody was," she says.

Some of her longest days will involve running up to 70km (43.5 miles), about the same as running from the Royal Albert Hall in London to the beach in Southend-on-Sea.

Each day, she enjoys a few hours of recovery before lacing up her trainers once again to lead a run club in the evening, which she says is often attended by hundreds of runners.

Several running clubs attended the session in Colchester's Castle Park, including about 40 members of Run Like A Girl Colchester.

"We'd have regretted it if we didn't go," says the club's founder Mathilda Coldwell. "It was really nice vibes."

Some runners have even gone to multiple cities to support Gummer's challenge.

Gary Parr, from Cambridgeshire, joined the runs in all three of the county's cities – Cambridge, Ely, and Peterborough – and hopes to travel to London for the final day of the challenge on 3 October.

"I'm absolutely in awe of everything she's doing," he says.

Gummer has dedicated most of her adult life to encouraging people to find joy in movement. She started studying to become a personal trainer about a year after she learnt to walk again and has worked in the fitness industry ever since.

The challenge is a fundraiser for the charities Wings for Life and Sport in Mind, and Gummer will be making donations to organisations nominated by people in each city she visits.

"What's been so special about [The Nation's 5k] is it's given people a purpose," she says.

"I just can't believe it when I find out that people from up north are booking Airbnbs for 3 October to be in London. It's going to take a while to really settle in that people have gone out of their way to do that."

Asked what she would say to her teenage self, she responds: "I do remember at the time thinking I don't ever want to work this hard again in case I lose it because it hurt so much.

"I think now, 18-year-old me would look at this moment and go, 'Thank you, because you've tried again,' and I think that finish line at the end is for my 18-year-old self to say, 'I want to prove to you that it doesn't always go wrong if you work hard'."

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