A Powys mum will be running over 300 miles over multiple Welsh mountains to raise money for the charity that will help her ill son.

Laurie Stephens, from Brecon, is taking on an epic running challenge to help raise money for two causes that are lose to her heart – which will see her run eight ultra marathons over the next year.

“I do five days of training at the minute, I’ve got a toddler so I do a lot of walking with him on my back as well. I’ll put him in one of those safety carriers on my back,” said Laurie.

“You still have to have you rest days though, it’s anything from about 30 to 50 miles a week.”

South Wales Argus:

The challenge has already seen her run 70km Brecon to Cardiff and will see her complete  42 miles from Canum Newport to Brecon, the Howum Heart of Wales 30 mile run, the Vogum Vale of Glamorgan 40 mile run, the Pigum 30 mile run, the Eddum Epynt 50 mile run and  the Ridum 30 mile run.

As well as this she has the truly astonishing Epona 100 miles.

“The 70 miler I did last year was only about 4,000 foot elevation. This hundred miler will be 17,000 feet, there’s 21 peaks in it,” said Laurie.

“I like my running, it is “me time”. It is my time to get away form the kids and get away from the hectic lifestyle. You just get in the zone and enjoy it, it’s an adventure – especially the longer ones. It’s a good eight or nine hours. Sometimes in new places.”

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To push her on in this mammoth challenge is that she will be raising money for two causes close to her heart, Kidney Wales and Accessibility Powys.

“Jacob, my youngest, he’s got multicystic dysplastic kidneys,” said Laurie. “He was born premature but when he was born his levels weren’t right and after a scan they found one of his kidneys doesn’t work and the other one does and there full of cysts because they didn’t develop properly.”

“In a few years we know Kidney Wales are going to be a godsend to us.”

South Wales Argus:

The other charity, Accessibility Powys is a Disabled Persons Organisation who provide information, support and training to disabled individuals and organisations and businesses who work with disabled individuals.

“I work two days a week for Accessibility Powys, I wanted to raise the money for them,” said Laurie. “I know how important they are and so many people don’t know about it. They do such important work around the whole of Powys.”

Laurie is currently hoping to “just raise as much money as she can” and is fairly confident she will be able to complete the shorter runs but has found things don’t always go to plan.

South Wales Argus:

“Sometimes things do go wrong, said Laurie. “Last year I attempted my first hundred miler but the kids shared a sickness bug on the Thursday before, the event was on the Saturday, I just got to 30 miles and thought this was just stupid.”

“The first run I did last summer my stomach just said no. I got to about 50km of 70km and my stomach was not playing ball, I was literally dragging myself to the end. It was the slowest plod I could do but I just kept moving. It was just mind over matter.”

You can help Laurie with her fundraising by donating here.