Jeremy Walker is no stranger to a challenge.
During his professional football career, Walker faced many obstacles. From intense training sessions, travel, constant scrutiny and fighting for his next contract, he endured the rigours of the professional game.
But one of the biggest challenges of his life awaits this year, six years after he last played football at the highest level in Australia.
On December 14, Walker will run the perimeter of King Island; a small island that sits between Victoria and Tasmania in the Bass Strait, where the former Melbourne Heart and Perth Glory full-back now calls home.
The reason? To raise money and awareness for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E).
“The plan is a full lap of the island. The island is roughly 175 kilometers all the way around,” he tells pfa.net.au.
“Adventure races have been a bit of a project for me, post soccer. I’ve been doing an ultra marathon pretty much every year, to raise some money for something that means something to me or to others that I’m close to.
“This is the next one on the list as a bit of a personal challenge, and then to raise some awareness and hopefully some funds for something that’s close to myself and my family.”
Walker admits M.E. was something “pretty unknown” that he only discovered two years ago.
“It’s a debilitating illness characterised by symptoms of extreme fatigue, usually increased through cognitive and or physical strain,” Walker said.
“It is signified by post exertional malaise, which arises after bouts of exertion or daily activities, whether that be thinking skills or physical activity, the symptoms worsen to a point where lots of people have been bed-ridden for periods of time, [for] months, up to years, without being able to function properly and live a normal life.
“There’s millions of people worldwide that suffer from M.E. and it currently doesn’t have a curative treatment. The point is to raise a bit of awareness and hopefully some much needed funding for advocacy, research, and then direct support for improving the quality of life for people that are suffering with M.E.”
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“A very close friend of mine has struggled for fifteen years with seemingly unknown illnesses, and infections that have led to a bigger issue that had no diagnosis,” he said.
“This person was diagnosed probably two or three years ago and I’ve been able to see from afar how debilitating of an illness it is and how much it fluctuates, depending on cognitive and physical activity.
“From that I’ve been able to reflect on my quality of life and things that I’ve probably taken for granted through my soccer career, through to teaching now and the activities that I’m able to do without any consequences and no thought into the effect it’s going to have on me in a couple of hours or tomorrow.
“There’s a bit of reflection and foresight into being able to potentially have an impact on a group of people and improve maybe one area of illness that doesn’t have too much advocating for at the moment.
“I think I read something recently that said, ‘should the sick really be the ones that are fighting for the sick?’ And I think that’s probably pretty prevalent in lots of illnesses, but in particular, for M.E., in some cases people are in bed with the lights off, unable to move and can’t advocate for themselves, and typically don’t have many people advocating for them either.”
The run is going to be no proverbial walk in the park either, and is a distance Walker has never completed before.
“The closest has been 62kms in an event in Tassie. That was to raise money for the Tarkine in the west coast of Tassie, where I grew up pretty close to. That was a day event and I’ve done that for the last three years,” he said.
“It took almost 10 hours for me and a few mates that have done it previously. But this one’s probably across a weekend, depending on how I’m feeling. But I’ve never prepared for something this big. We’ll see how we go, and see if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”
Walker will tackle the mixed terrain of King Island, having settled on the Island eight months ago, where he teaches at the local school.
“We will see how much I can endure. I plan it to get through 100kms the first day,” he said.
“The terrain will be beach and then single tracks. They’ve got some really cool kelp trails along the west coast of the island in particular. The South-West coast will be single trail that a couple of people do as bush then lots of beach running on the east and north coast.”
Some of the terrain Jeremy Walker will run through on King Island. Images: Supplied
And if Walker can tick off this run, then he has an even bigger challenge waiting next year.
Flinders Island, which lays directly parallel to King Island above Tasmania, is the next obstacle awaiting Walker which is about 200 kilometres.
“I’ve been pretty driven with having a goal and achieving something, so I didn’t want to put a date to that (Flinders run) if I wasn’t able to achieve the King Island one, so that’ll be ticked that off first,” he said.
“If I don’t make it the first time, I’ll have a crack at it again. And then the plan is to do another one on Flinders the following year, depending on the success of this one and how the body holds up.”
Walker has set up a fundraising link, with all proceeds for the run going to an Australian organisation called ‘Emerge’, who are passionate about research and advocacy for ME.
“Emerge also has some really good information about the illness, and potentially sharing that on as much as we can to make sure the people that are suffering are heard and we understand what people are going through.”
To donate to Jeremy Walker’s run around King Island, head to this link.
