The man who walked 100 miles in Leigh for Charity - a son's account!

September 24, 2014 by Joanna Harrison

My dad Ollie Browne who is 60 years old who is a Centurion which means he is 1 of only 1000 in the world who has completed 100 miles race walking within 24hrs.

He has completed over 10 of these events in his life many being races for charity events, 2 of which were completed on Marine Parade, Leigh-on-Sea. 

His first one was in 2010 when he walked for Help For Heroes & raised over £6000.

Dad's latest event was held Saturday 20th September. He started his challenge at 12pm Saturday aiming to complete his 100 miles within 24 hrs. He had to walk a 1.4 mile stretch 66 times non stop in order to complete his challenge.

The support Dad received was amazing and consisted of so many family & many friends with people turning up to walk alongside him for a few laps.

With such a tight timescale, all his feeding & hydration had to be done on the move to make sure he kept under 24hrs and he completed the 100 miles in a fantastic 23 hours 42 minutes on Sunday morning.

When he crossed the line he was met by a crowd of over 50 family & friends!

Dad did the event in aid of the Essex Air Ambulance who in January saved my brother Mylo Brownes life. He came in from fishing & whilst unloading the boat a forklift truck toppled over crushing him causing him to stop breathing & dying 3 times on the beach until the Air Ambulance rushed him to hospital in London where he was placed into an induced coma as his windpipe was crushed & couldn’t breath for himself. He made a full recovery within 1 week of being in hospital. His only injuries were a fractured collarbone & graze to the back of the head.

In all, Dad raised just over £3500 in 24 hours for the Air Ambulance. 

We are ALL so proud of him but not as proud as we are of Essex Air Ambulance for saving Mylo's life!

Jack