A Kooringal woman has completed a gruelling 45 kilometre trek to Coolamon as part of a fundraising effort to help people suffering from mitochondrial disease.
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Bonnie Jackson-French had never even heard of mitochondrial disease before taking on the challenge, but after reading about its "horrible" side-effects she became determined to take action.
"At the more serious end of the spectrum some people are quite disabled from it - it's quite horrible, but so many people have never heard of it," Ms Jackson-French said.
"The idea behind the fundraiser was to walk 35 km in a month, but I thought I can do better than that. That's not a challenge."
She set her own goal of walking from her house in Kooringal, up the highway, and all the way into Coolamon where her friend would be waiting for her at the finish line.
She said the first few dozen kilometres felt like a "leisurely Sunday stroll", which soon turned into a exhausting slog and a test of her endurance.
"I started off jogging, but about 30 kilometres in I got very sore, my body said 'no more' and I had to walk in pain for the other 15," Ms Jackson-French said.
"Once you get about 35kms in you see that 10km sign and you think 'maybe I could hitch-hike it', but I kept going anyway."
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Her water supplies quickly ran dry, and the thought of a refreshing soft-drink at the local Coolamon pub was what kept her going through the last 15km stretch.
To her dismay, when she arrived at Coolamon both of the pubs were closed, and so she exhaustedly slumped to the ground and waited for her friend to pick her up.
Her final time was six and half hours, and she had raised over $400 over the course of that walk.
Ms Jackson-French said she got a bruised foot and was still aching all over, but she said she did not regret the experience one bit.
"I'm glad I did it," she said.