The Woman Told She'd Never Walk Again, Now She’s Running 50K a Day

Running influencer and SAS: Who Dares Wins star Esmee Gummer opened up about her experience becoming paralysed from the waist down at 18 years old, her recovery and the unbelievable challenge she’s about to embark on.

Speaking to host Claira Hermet on the What The Health?! show on FUBAR Radio, Esmee described her unexpected and hellish experience: "I had a hernia in my groin, and for anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's basically where your intestine pushes through the muscle wall, and all they do is literally stick it back in, put some mesh on it and sew it up. It's very simple and routine. I remember my granddad dropping me off and I didn’t even take an over night bag. I thought I’d be out in a couple of hours."

However, things quickly took a devastating turn while she was under anaesthetic: "While I was under, I had a reaction to the anaesthetic. I actually started to seizure under it. They sewed me back up and brought me round, thinking maybe when she comes back around it’ll be okay. But it wasn’t. I continued to seizure for about eight hours, on and off, and that’s what caused this brain damage, which meant I couldn’t move from waist down."

She revealed that even doctors were left confused by what had happened: "No one really knew what happened. I was very much in a position where everyone said ‘we don’t get it, and we don’t know what’s happened. And we also don’t know how to fix this’. Everyone was just very confused."

Reflecting on the emotional impact, Esmee explained that the reality of her condition didn’t hit straight away:

"It was actually at night, when I was on my own, that I really felt it. During the day you’re distracted, but at night I’d lie there and that’s when I’d think, oh... I can’t walk. That’s when the anxiety would come in and it really started to hit me. I went into a really bad depression after it happened, but it wasn’t actually about the accident. It was the first time in my life that I’d really connected movement to mental health. I realised I feel like this because I’m not moving, and I’d never understood that before because movement had always just been part of who I was."

Although it took six years, Esmee eventually returned to running and rebuilt her confidence.

Now, she’s taking on her biggest challenge yet: running approximately 5,000 kilometres across the UK in 99 days while hosting free 5K events in 77 cities as part of The Nation’s 5K.

"I’m going to run to every city, and it’s on average 50k a day for 99 days. There’s no rest days. It sounds massive, and it is, but for me the running is just the mode of transport. The real purpose is the run clubs and getting people involved."

Her mission is rooted in accessibility and breaking down barriers to movement: "There’s more people that haven’t done a 5k than have, and they’re my focus. I don’t care if you walk it, jog it, run it, wheel it, come on crutches or bring a pram. There’s always something you can say yes to."

"If I can do 50, you can do 5. That’s the whole point of it. I didn’t want to put myself on a pedestal. I wanted to put myself on the same level and say, I’m scared of this too, so come and be scared with me."

Esmee also stressed that the initiative is about long-term impact, not a one-off event: "This isn’t a stunt. This is forever for me. What matters most is what happens after I leave each city. I want people to keep moving, to find community, to change their lives in a way that lasts."