‘We're not elite athletes, we're just idiots with poor haircuts who run to help people with cancer'

TWO super-fit brothers who ran across Australia to help cancer patients, are taking on an even more ambitious challenge – running the length of the UK, notching up 38 marathons in 35 days.

Stefan and Lachlan Lamble, famous for their trademark ‘mullet’ hairstyles and ripped physiques, are taking on a bigger and bolder challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Last year, the brothers, collectively known as ‘Lambros’, ran a marathon a day, covering 3,400km (2,112 miles) from Perth on the west coast to Melbourne in the east, in 85 days, and raising A$249,000 dollars (£121,000) for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF).

Starting tomorrow (Jul 26), they’ll be running from John O’Groats to Land’s End, aiming to raise £250,000 for CRUK (finishing Aug 29), and become the first brothers to run the length of the UK.

The challenge will be a family affair - Stefan, 26, and Lachlan, 24, from Melbourne, will be accompanied by their mum Deborah, 57. She’ll be travelling alongside them in a motor home, cooking their favourite meals and providing plasters and TLC.

Even though the distances were much bigger in Australia, and they faced extreme weather - like flooding and temperatures of 46 degrees which made the soles of their shoes melt - they say the UK is the bigger challenge.

Stefan said: “We have much more ground to cover in a much shorter time. In the UK we’ll be doing about 48Km (30 miles) a day compared to 40k (25 miles) in Australia. The other big thing is elevation.

“We’ve never been to the UK before but we’ve heard the Scottish hills are absolutely wild! To prepare ourselves, six months ago we moved to the Dandenong Ranges – extreme mountains near Melbourne - to train and acclimatise ourselves.

“Australia is so flat the elevation is about 50m a day where as in the UK, I think it’s over 500m a day. We’ve been running up and down Mount Dandenong all day!”

The other major challenge is injuries. Their bodies are still suffering from the Australian run – stress fractures, a broken foot, torn cartilages, meniscus injuries, plus endless blisters and sores. But they are determined to complete the challenge.

Lachlan said: “We’re still a bit banged up – it definitely took its toll on our bodies. We’re hoping to avoid any more stress fractures. But we’ll keep going through the pain.

“Another element of it is that it’s half the amount of time but we are aiming to raise double the amount of money we did in Australia.

“But in doing that, we pride ourselves on connecting with the communities we run through, having fun, using our social media to reach more people and raising as much money as we can.”

The boys have some British ancestry but while taking on the Australian running challenge, they came across so many British backpackers, they decided to take on the UK run.

“We were running across the Nullarbor Plain – 2,000 km of desert where there is pretty much nothing! - but there are these roadhouses and every time we rocked up at one, there were always British backpackers.

“We’d sit round a bonfire, have food and talk They were all so friendly and some of them shared their moving family cancer stories with us. They were so inspiring and supportive that afterwards, we decided the UK should be next.”

The boys have more than 700,000 social media followers and 25-30% of their support comes from the UK. Some of their YouTube videos have had 7m views.

“The social media is really important to us. So many people got behind us and when we’re suffering, they really encourage us,” said Lachlan.

“We get a lot of cancer patients and people who have lost a loved one reaching out to us. Sometimes they send a video of their loved one in hospital and we’d send a video back to give them motivation to keep fighting. We’d do that on the road which is the most heart-touching thing ever – that’s really what inspires us.

“There are people out there right now who are having it a lot tougher than us - people in hospital beds fighting for their lives. We’re lucky we’ve got two legs and we can run.

“We’re not elite athletes, we’re just idiots with poor haircuts who run to try to help people with cancer,” said Lachlan.

Before starting the Australian run, Lachlan was playing professional football for the Australian Football League (AFL) division 2, and had qualified as a physiotherapist. Stefan also played AFL, became a coach and worked in finance. But they both gave up their careers to run across Australia.

They came up with the idea of being the first brothers to run across the country after both their grandmothers had cancer. One nan, Margaret, died of breast cancer in 2016, and the other, Jan, was recently successfully treated for thyroid cancer.

“We both used to be sprinters in AFL – Aussie rules footie - so we had no experience of distance running, but we were both like explosive athletes so we put a lot of effort into our training and gave it a massive crack,” said Stefan.

Despite the pair’s upbeat Insta posts, there were plenty of tough days on the road.

Lachlan said: “Looking back, we don’t know how we got across Australia. There were so many days when we woke up and thought ‘How on earth are we going to do another marathon today?’ At one point, Stef couldn’t even stand – he fell over three times.

“But we had a ‘three steps’ rule – keep taking three steps forward and you keep moving.

“Our motto was: If you can stand, you can walk; if you can walk, you can run.

“We always say you can run faster alone but further together – that’s something we hold ourselves to,” he added.

Other tools the brothers use are practising gratitude, mediation and visualisation every morning. “It’s a big thing for us too – it really helped,” said Stefan.

Along the route, the boys will be carrying a British penny – a symbol for those whose lives are touched by cancer.

Stefan said: “The penny is a symbol of hope for people battling cancer and for those who have lost a loved one and it will be auctioned off at the end of the trip with the money going to Cancer Research UK. And we’ll donate a penny for every new social media follower we get too.”

Their distinctive ‘mullets’ were born out of lockdown. With no possibility of a visit to the barber, they began cutting each other’s hair.

“We decided to turn our home gym into a hairdressing salon and started cutting each other’s hair with a razor comb. We haven’t been to the hairdressers in five years!“ said Stefan.

Before each day’s run, the brothers get up at 5am, eat, do some breath work, meditate and visualise their goal. They will then be on the road for 6-7 hours.

Lachlan said: “We’re not necessarily in a rush. We want to connect with people - meet them, chat with them, make friends and explain why this run is so important in raising money for Cancer Research UK.

“We love to hear from people on our social media too – send us your support and your stories.”

The brothers love eating – particularly their mum’s cooking. During the Aussie run, they had two mates with them who ‘slapped cold tuna and rice on a plate’ for them day after day, or sometimes served up Rice Krispies.

“For this run we had to move out for six months to train and we’ve really missed Mum’s cooking!” said Lachlan. “She’s coming with us this time - supporting us and cooking for us - so we’ll have our favourite - her spaghetti Bolognese - to look forward to!

“We’re super-excited to see and experience everything – the landscape, the people, the food, like fish and chips or a traditional Sunday lunch.

“We’ve heard about some of the fantastic food and drinks and local delicacies that are made in some of the areas we’re running through, so we really want to experience some of those too – that’ll be one of the highlights!”

They know there will be pain along the way, but they are undeterred.

“Even if we only save one life, it will all have been worth it,” said Lachlan.

Sharon Baldwin, fundraising manager for Cancer Research UK, said: “We’re in awe of the challenge Stefan and Lachlan are taking on. It’s a huge emotional and physical endeavour, driven by their own family experience of the pain and uncertainty of cancer.

“The brothers have big hearts and are enormous fun and we’d love people to come out and show their support for them as they run through the country.

“Every step they take and every penny they raise will help Cancer Research UK advance on the path to finding new, better and kinder treatments for all 200 types of cancer.”

During the run people will be able to donate via their fundraising page: LAMBROS - PROJECT UK | givestar

Or this QR code, which will also be on the side of their camper van.