John Jenkins set off running from his home in Neath. At the foot of Pen y Fan he lifted his daughter Leah onto his back, carried her to the summit, then ran all the way home again.
It was about 27 miles each way, he says, though he admits taking a short cut over another mountain to knock a couple of miles off.
On Friday night it won him the Above & Beyond award at the Child of Wales Awards. The ceremony at Swansea Building Society Arena marked the awards’ fifth anniversary, with 700 guests.
PURA syndrome: doing “the same as every other child”
Leah has an extremely rare genetic condition that affects how the nerves and brain develop, called PURA syndrome. John says about 800 people in the world have it.
When Leah was little, he and his wife Caroline decided she would do “the same as every other child”.
She rides horses, skis, surfs and skateboards, and is part of the Welsh Judo squad’s adaptive side.
The climb was his way “to try and raise awareness of these fantastic groups we’re part of”, he said. The awards say it also raised money for the four charities behind her skiing, surfing, skateboarding and judo.
Training for Pen y Fan with bags of coal and kettlebells
Caroline thought the idea “absolutely horrendous”, John said, and most people agreed.
Friends and family say he’s mad, and that once he gets an idea in his head there is no getting it out.
He bought the biggest baby carrier he could find, and Caroline adapted it to fit Leah. Then he ran the streets of Neath carrying bags of coal and kettlebells to get used to the weight.
Carrying her up the mountain was not enough on its own. “I didn’t think that was quite hard enough, so I decided I’d run to Pen y Fan first, carry Leah, and then run home,” he said.
He also helped Leah walk part of the route herself, the awards say.
Leah’s brother Macsen was his “wingman” on the mountain
Leah’s younger brother Macsen carried the safety gear beside them. “Every time we stopped for a break, he was giving Leah a drink, giving me a drink, helping me back up,” John said.
Macsen said it was good to help, “especially since he’s run 27 miles beforehand”.
That is why John calls it a family effort rather than his. “If it wasn’t for Caroline, we wouldn’t be doing this,” he said.
When they first met, he recalls, Caroline told him that if he couldn’t make her life easier, he could do one. “What I’ve actually done is made it more difficult,” he said.
31 marathons in 31 days: not John’s first challenge
Five or six years ago he ran 31 marathons in 31 days to raise money for a ski trip to France for the children in their ski group.
The family is also part of Surfability, the inclusive surf school that took blind and partially sighted people onto the waves at Caswell Bay in 2024. Its offshoot Boardability does adaptive skateboarding and other wheeled sports.
BBC Morning Live presenter Gethin Jones hosted the awards for a fifth year. This year they raised money for Wales Air Ambulance and the mental health charity Big Moose.
In August the awards gave a certificate of merit to Gracie Kinnear, the seven-year-old who raised £65,000 for the air ambulance.
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