Charity runner Chiyin Reynolds ran a marathon a day for the entire month of February, including an extra leap-year day, to raise awareness for mental health.

To put that in perspective, the distance from Perth to Exmouth, according to Google Maps, is 1252km – 12 hours and 50 minutes of continuous driving.

Earlier this year, Mr Reynolds attempted a world record treadmill run, which would have seen him run 850km in seven days to raise money for mental health charity, Happiness Co.

Despite being forced to stop after 450km due to immense physical strain, he raised up to $30,000 for his efforts, according to his fundraising website.

Mr Reynolds says his inspiration stems from his upbringing as an adopted child.

“It all started from my past: from being adopted, but also going through drug addiction, alcohol, going in and out of hospital and rehabilitation,” Mr Reynolds says.

According to Suicide Prevention Australia, eight people die by suicide in WA every week.

Following his February challenge, Mr Reynolds’ initial plan was to continue running a marathon every day until he could run with ultramarathon athlete Nedd Brockmann.

Mr Reynolds says Mr Brockmann is one of his primary inspirations to undertake such distances.

“I saw Nedd’s Uncomfortable Challenge, and I was thinking to myself, if Nedd Brockmann can run around a track for a thousand miles, why can’t I run 10km to a half-marathon a day for 11 days?”

However, amid mounting injuries from his February challenge, he announced he would stop his long-distance runs and focus instead on slowly recovering.

Melanie Wade is a supervisor for physiotherapy students at Curtin University and says running such long distances puts immense strain on the body.

“Because he was on his feet for so long over so many days, that will produce [lots of] issues and it’d take months of recovery from a distance like that,” she says.

Mr Reynolds says he will continue fundraising for his charity and raising mental health awareness through his running endeavours.

If you or someone you know needs help, you can contact Headspace at 1800 650 890 or the organisation’s online chat support service.

You can also contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Suicide Call Back Service at 1300 659 467.