Russell, David, Jimi: Heroes – But Why?

On Sunday Russell Cook, nicknamed ‘The Hardest Geezer’, completed his run from the tip of South Africa to the northernmost point of Tunisia. His journey spanned 10,190 miles, 352 days, 16 countries… through rainforests, over mountains, across the Sahara…

Why?  

Russell, 27, from Worthing, West Sussex, said he’d struggled with his mental health, gambling and drinking. Running taught him discipline, motivation and helped him deal with rage and other mental health struggles.

He hoped to look back at his life and have no regrets; he wanted to ‘make a difference’. Through this particular mammoth challenge, he’s raised more than £690,000 for charity.

On Monday a Royal Albert Hall concert included more than 700 performers, with singers from Essex choirs, musical theatre legend Michael Ball, and The Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines.

It featured musicians with learning disabilities from ‘The Music Man Project’, founded by David Stanley.

Why?

David established The Music Man Project in Southend to meet the needs of the local learning-disabled community.

David’s work has subsequently expanded across the UK with 14 regional centres, providing accessible music for both the learning-disabled, and other vulnerable groups. David campaigns for the equal rights of disabled people to perform at the most prestigious venues in the world…

In April 2021, Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole (Jimi), a twenty-year-old Nigerian, tragically drowned trying to save a woman who’d fallen into the river Thames.

Why?

Dan Walker interviewed folk who knew Jimi: ‘It’s hard to imagine someone so kind, so outgoing, so selfless, so sacrificial, so giving, so caring…’

One friend spoke of Jimi’s faith: ‘I know that he rededicated his life to Jesus Christ in the week of his death. I’m sure that was in his mind when he jumped in that river to save that woman.’

Walker concludes: ‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ For Christians sacrifice is at the very heart of the gospel message, a message that Jimi would have known only too well.’