Jason Arday has resigned from his post at the University of Cambridge, but as the story rumbles on and new revelations about him emerge by the hour, The Spectator thought it would be useful to create a comprehensive reference guide of all the outlandish claims made by our modern-day Walter Mitty.
Arday claimed that he went to both South America and West Africa to install water points
Athletic prowess: Arday claimed that he once ran six hundred miles between Edinburgh and London in six days for charity, an accomplishment which would put him in the upper tier of world ultra marathon runners. He also claimed that he ran run thirty marathons in thirty-five days. On the twenty-first marathon he suffered from an epileptic fit and fractured his leg after falling down. This did not deter him and he went on to finish the remaining nine marathons.’ ‘To this day, I don’t really know how I did it,’ he recalled.
Pass the pâté: Arday claimed in a 2024 speaking engagement that he raised over £5 million for charity from his marathons and that he had raised over £5.5 million in his life. This is an extraordinary sum – Arday has said elsewhere that the money went ‘most notably’ to Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Shelter. One JustGiving page shows Arday raising only £380 for one of his 300 miles in three days challenges.
