Louis Alexander

THE 24-YEAR-OLD BRITISH EXPLORER AND ENDURANCE ATHLETE RAN A MARATHON ON EVERY CONTINENT TO RAISE AWARENESS OF DEMENTIA

Where does your passion for adventure come from? 

I owe it to my grandfather, Captain Rick Taylor. He served in the British Army for 38 years, but it was his battle against dementia [an umbrella term associated with diseases that affect brain function, including Alzheimer’s] that ended his life. He dreamed of taking on Mount Kilimanjaro, and after finishing school, I decided to go out there in his honour. I climbed for him and Alzheimer’s Research UK, which is a charity I’ve supported ever since, but I also returned home with something for myself a love for adventure.

You ran seven marathons, one on each continent, to raise awareness of dementia — a challenge you completed in December 2023. Where did the project take you? 

To many of the most remote corners of the world. I ran through the deserts of Morocco and Jordan, as well as a nature reserve in Alaska, the Australian Outback, the Amazon Rainforest, the Arctic Circle in Norway and Antarctica. There was a huge contrast in the wildlife, the communities, the weather — I started in Morocco’s Agafay Desert, where temperatures are around 40C, and finished on Union Glacier, Antarctica, where it’s -25C. It was the greatest 14 months of my life.