Giles lost his mum to a cruel disease. Now, he’s taking on an unthinkable challenge

Giles Ashton-Roberts spent his mother’s final days watching her navigate a cruel reality: her mind was fully alert, but Motor Neurone Disease (MND) had left her body paralysed.

“Watching her deal with such a devastating illness was extraordinarily difficult,” he told nine.com.au.

“Towards the end, her mind was fully sharp, but she was trapped in an immobile body without control over her physical movements.”

MND is a fatal, rapidly progressive condition that attacks the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement.

There is currently no known cure, and in Australia alone, two people are diagnosed and two die from the disease every single day.

On Sunday, Ashton-Roberts, 50, is putting his own body to the test at the TCS Sydney Marathon.

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It’s the halfway mark of a 12-month mission to run seven global marathons in her memory for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

The UK executive’s mother was diagnosed just over a decade ago, after the pair had reconnected following a childhood largely spent apart.

“When she was diagnosed, all those missed opportunities from my youth came right to the fore,” he said.

Ashton-Roberts was only a casual jogger when he completed his first marathon in London in 2024.

What was supposed to be a one-off run has since escalated into a 50th-birthday challenge to conquer as many marathons as possible around the globe.

But it nearly unravelled before it began when illness forced him to miss his opening race in Mumbai.

Instead, Paris became his first marathon, closely followed by Boston and London. Completing three marathons in just 14 days left him battered and injured.

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“During that first half of the challenge, I did stop and think, ‘Have I bitten off more than I can chew?’” he said.

“But the body and mind are strange things. You can push through if you keep telling yourself you can do it.”

During the hardest kilometres, thoughts of his mother keep him moving.

“When I picked up injuries in Paris and Boston, what brought it home was knowing my physical pain was temporary,” he said.

“I kept telling myself: ‘I will recover, I will heal, I can get through this’. My mother never got that chance.”

After Sydney, Ashton-Roberts will tackle Chicago and New York before finally returning to Mumbai to complete his seventh race.

“Ending where it was originally supposed to start feels like completing the full circle.”