![\"Jacky](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/124390934_jacky1-696x392.jpg\" "\\"Jacky")
A woman who took up running after she lost her left leg to cancer has passed the Guinness World Record for most consecutive marathons.<\/p>\n
Jacky Hunt-Broersma, 46, has run 26.2-miles every day since mid-January, normally taking around five hours.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, she completed her 104th consecutive marathon in as many days \u2013 an achievement she expects to be certified by Guinness World Records.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said certifying the record would take around three months.<\/p>\n
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Waking up on Sunday \u2013 a day off at long last \u2013 was a bizarre experience for Jacky.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of me was really happy to be done,\u201d she tells the BBC from her home in Arizona. \u201cAnd the other part kept thinking I need to go running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her body is also recovering from the record-chasing effort, despite having stopped. \u201cI feel tighter than I have the whole 104 marathons,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
But Jacky \u2013 who was born and raised in South Africa, and has also lived in England and the Netherlands \u2013 is grateful. Because running has given her the confidence she was afraid she would never regain.<\/p>\n
In 2002, doctors in the Netherlands diagnosed her with Ewing\u2019s sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer.<\/p>\n
Within two weeks, they amputated her left leg to save her life. She was only 26 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a rollercoaster,\u201d she recalls. \u201cEverything happened so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first couple of years, Jacky struggled with the change in her life. She was angry that she had got cancer and embarrassed to be different. She wore long trousers in public so people would not notice the prosthetic.<\/p>\n
Almost on a whim, she took up running in 2016.<\/p>\n
She had cheered her husband on at long-distance running events but had never considered doing it herself, thinking it was only \u201cfor crazy people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Buying a special prosthetic for long-distance runners, she signed up for her very first 10K (6.2 mile) run.<\/p>\n
On the eve of the race, she switched her registration to the half-marathon category \u2013 and she has not looked back since, exploring longer distances and different terrains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an all or nothing person, so I just threw myself in,\u201d she explains. \u201cI love pushing boundaries and seeing how far I can push.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the year, Jacky gave herself a new goal: the record for most consecutive marathons.<\/p>\n
The female Guinness record stood at 95 \u2013 set two years go by Alyssa Amos Clark, a non-amputee runner from Vermont \u2013\u00a0who did it as a pandemic coping strategy.<\/p>\n
The male Guinness record is held by\u00a0Enzo Caporaso of Italy with 59\u00a0\u2013 although Spanish ultra-runner Ricardo Abad reportedly ran 607 consecutive marathons, finishing in 2012.<\/p>\n
So Jacky \u2013 a mother of two who works as an endurance coach \u2013 started running with the record in mind, making sure she always ran at least the length of a marathon.<\/p>\n
She did the world-famous Boston Marathon in Massachusetts and the Lost Dutchman in Arizona, but marathons are not scheduled every day, so she also ran on local dirt paths, neighbourhood trails and even her own treadmill at home.<\/p>\n
And when British runner Kate Jayden broke\u00a0Alyssa\u2019s record by completing 101 runs,\u00a0Jacky kept going to beat her and \u201cto round the month [of April] off\u201d with one final marathon.<\/p>\n
All told, she ran 2,734 miles. Guinness World Records told the AP news agency it would take around 12 to 15 weeks to review the evidence and certify the record.<\/p>\n
Documenting those runs on social media, Jacky has raised over $88,000 (\u00a370,000) for Amputee Blade Runners, a non-profit organisation that provides running blades like hers to amputees.<\/p>\n
The runs have been mostly a mental game, she says, but they have also taken a physical toll.<\/p>\n
She has to wear liners and sweat socks with her blades, and needs to foam roll, stretch and ice her leg stump daily. Remarkably, she remained injury-free throughout the feat.<\/p>\n
In fact, Jacky wishes she had started running earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning has made such a difference on my mental state and it showed me how strong my body can be. It gave me a total new acceptance of who I am and that I can do hard things.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she is determined to keep going. Next up: the Moab, a gruelling 240-mile race in Utah this October.<\/p>\n
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