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The 16-year-old is aiming to run 300 miles in just six days
Toryn is being supported by a number of family members on his runs, including his dad (Image: Toryn Knoyle)
A Welsh rugby star’s son is running 50 miles through the streets every day as he embarks on a huge challenge.
Toryn Knoyle, son of former Wales scrum-half Tavis Knoyle, is aiming to run 300 miles in just six days in a bid to raise money for a cancer charity. The 16-year-old set himself the remarkable challenge to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Swansea, which has been support his aunt Becca since she was diagnosed with the disease.
While most 16 year olds who have just finished their exams would be looking forward to some lie-ins in bed, Toryn is spending the start of his extra-long summer getting up at 5am to run between through the streets of Neath Port Talbot.
Since Monday morning, he has been running loops of the 12-mile stretch between his home in Pontneathvaughan and Unit9 Gym in Neath, which is owed by his dad and his stepmum Jo.
With a few short breaks to recover and refuel, he’s been running from early in the morning until 6pm or 7pm in the evening, where he gets ready to do it all again the next day.
Knoyle, who won 11 caps for Wales, is helping to motivate his son by running or cycling alongside him.
Jo said the family had initially tried to put him off such a huge challenge, but are amazed and proud of the resilience he has shown.
“He came to us and said he wanted to do 300 miles in less than a week,” she said. “We tried every way to put him off. He wanted to do it while his exams were on at first and we were like ‘absolutely not’.”
After his exams were over, he asked the family to help him set up a JustGiving page. “We tried to tell him that even trying to do a marathon a day was a huge achievement, but two marathons a day over six days is crazy. Everyone is saying he’s crazy,” she added.
“He’s so determined – he was either going to do it on his own or with our support, so we’ve supported him all the way.” Stay informed on everything Neath Port Talbot by signing up to our newsletter here
He has already ran 150 miles and although he can barely walk at times, Toryn is determined to keep going and says that whatever pain he’s feeling, it’s not the same as what the people being supported by Maggie’s are going through.
He has already raised close to £5,000 for the charity on his JustGiving page, smashing his original target of £1,000. Jo says the community have also been incredible in coming out to support Toryn, with people, including his grandparents, joining behind on bikes to do parts of the loop alongside him.
“People are driving up and down the old road where they know he’s going to be running just to beep their horns,” she added.
Due to the ongoing heatwave, Toryn is also racking up some of the miles on a treadmill at the gym, to keep him out of the sun during the hottest part of the afternoon. “He didn’t want to do that, but we forced him into doing it,” Jo laughed.
It’s been whole family effort to keep the youngster going, with Jo explaining that she and Knoyle are “tag-teaming” with Toryn’s mum Julie Williams to make sure he’s getting everything he needs. “Julie’s taking him home in the night, feeding him, rubbing his feet, doing everything for him and then dropping him here at 5am for Tavis to take him out all day again.”
Knoyle, having played rugby professionally for years, is the “best coach for him to have”, Jo said. “Me and Julie are on the sides asking if he’s ok and telling him he can stop if he needs to, but Tavis is there to tell him he can do it” she laughed.
“Toryn is awesome. I’ve asked him if if it’s harder than he thought because we were all convinced he thought it would be easy but he just turns around and says: ‘Yeah, it’s as hard as I thought it was going to be’. He could hardly walk and he still was saying he expected all this. He’s just so tough mentally.”
Jo added that Toryn’s motivation for the challenge – aunt Becca – is so “happy and proud” of the teenager.
“She’s obviously worried about him now because of how many miles he’s doing but she’s ecstatic because Maggie’s helped her so much. He loves Becca and I think his main motivation is how much money he’s raising for them. His target was only £1,000 but he’s over £4,000, which is unbelievable really.
“He’s just not showing any signs of stopping at the minute.”
Toryn is due to finish the challenge at Seven Sisters RFC on Saturday evening. You can follow his journey on Instagram @trw__9 and donate to his fundraiser here.
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