'I defied medics to run every street in my town'

Chris Smith said he was determined to run again despite some major health challenges

When marathon runner Chris Smith suffered a serious respiratory illness he was told he would never run again - now he is defying the odds by running every single street in his town.

The keen athelete, from Great Sankey in Warrington, Cheshire, collapsed while out running and was diagnosed with double pneumonia, blood clots in both lungs, pleurisy as well as septicaemia in 2020.

Devastated, he sought a second opinion but was only told the same.

"I was very thankful to be alive, but I was hugely upset. I'd spent my whole life as a runner, at the time I was 59 and it was a way of life," he said.

"When I was a young man I graduated from 800 and 1,500 metre, through to five and 10km and eventually I ran 55 marathons in the UK, America and Europe.

"I was determined to run again.

"I thought to myself no I'm not going to accept this. I couldn't sit at home twiddling my thumbs."

In time, Chris was back up and running and training hard

In July 2021, a year after being discharged, Mr Smith said he had tried to prove the consultants wrong by going for a short run, "but instead I proved them right" by falling short.

Two years later he tried and failed again but in the summer of 2024 he made a third attempt and this time things were different.

"I felt better than I had done in a long while," he said.

For extra inspiration, this was when he came up with the idea of a challenge to run every single street in the borough of Warrington.

"I was determined by this point I was going to find a way," he said.

He has since become a regular sight across the borough and has filmed his progress, which has been edited into a short film.

'People are curious'

"I ran 368 miles, recorded 1.2 million steps in 70 days and filmed more than 90 hours of video in 2,927 streets," he said.

"A lot of people were very curious about what I was doing because I'd be going in and out of a cul-de-sac," he said.

"I had been passing people several times and that was the best part, stopping and talking to people.

"I've competed in championship triathlons, the biggest marathons in the world, I've done some big swimming events but this was the best thing I've ever done," he said.

And Mr Smith said he has now plans to stop there.

"I was initially told I'd never swim, I'd never run and I'd never cycle again," he said.

"But I've proved that I can run so I've now started swimming again and I'm hoping to get out on the bike in the next week or two.

"I am now looking again at some low level triathlons towards the end of the summer."