Few have faced more adversity in pursuit of a goal than Nick Ashill, but the determined kiwi is a walking... no, running, testament to the idea that when life knocks you down, you get back up again.
Nick sets out on an arduous 4000km run across Australia today in order to raise funds for the New Zealand Asthma and Respiratory Foundation.
If the 59-year-old from Wellington completes the run, he will become one of just five people to run across both Australia and the USA.
But that's not even the most impressive part - during his first attempt to run across the USA, after completing about 80 per cent of his planned route, he was hit by a pickup truck in a suspected deliberate hit-and-run.
He spent the next four months in Ohio State University Hospital - requiring 16 surgeries. He then underwent a long and arduous rehabilitation process. Five months after the accident, he was walking on crutches. He attempted his first run after a year, but fell after just a few steps. Still, Nick persevered, and after two and a half years, he ran his first full kilometre since the accident.
In 2022, assisted by a team that included endurance runners Paul Wheeler and Jim McCord, he returned to the very scene of his accident and completed the run.
Nick said he made the decision that he would return and complete the run while still lying in his hospital bed.
"There were two reasons for that, one - I'm a very stubborn individual and like to finish the things I've started," he said.
The second reason was even more compelling - Nick was running for the greater purpose of raising money for the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation. His mother Barbara had passed away in 2015, two and a half years after being diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis - a rare and incurable lung disease which affects about 3 million people worldwide.
After hearing the personal stories of a number of other people living with respiratory diseases at a foundation fundraiser, Nick decided it was time to set himself another epic challenge.
"I started my run in 2017 with my sole focus on pulmonary fibrosis, but I also know the foundation does great work with a range of other respiratory illnesses," he said.
Nick estimates it will take about 70 days to complete his planned route from Perth's Cottesloe Beach to Bondi in Sydney.
It would be a herculean task for any endurance runner. Nick has the added complication of titanium rods and screws in his right leg and pelvis, as well as arthritis in his knees and hips.
"I've certainly lost the speed that I did have, but on a run of this magnitude, speed is irrelevant. My target is 60km a day," he said.
For more information or to donate visit www.nickrunsaustralia.org.nz
