Jared completes his mission not to stop for an entire year

After losing his mother, Sue, and brother, Sam, to heart conditions, Jared Scott declared he “wouldn’t stop” for a year.

At the beginning of 2021, he set out on a series of fitness challenges to raise money for charity in their honour.

Since February 2021, Jared has clocked 3,514,972 steps and doesn’t regret a single one.

In July, he completed the National Three Peaks Challenge, scaling the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in under 19 hours.

In September, he went wild swimming every day, and in October he dodged processed foods while training for his first marathon in December.

For the final month, he dedicated his time to doing one physical activity a day, calling it the “greatest hits” of the year-long challenge.

He said: “What always carried me was I know how proud my mum and brother would have been if they could have watched me over this last year.”

Of course, he experienced a number of setbacks throughout the year.

He says the three peaks challenge was his biggest undertaking and the one he’ll remember most.

He said: “I was getting to a point where I would wake up in the middle of the night because my legs were just sore.

“I’d hurt myself a little bit with the training.”

Keeping in the spirit of raising awareness of getting active, Jared decided to push himself out of his comfort zone.

He said: “I’ve always been comfortable doing mountain climbing.

“And I was getting a lot of messages from people saying they would have loved to have joined me going up Bennachie, but they thought they wouldn’t be keeping up.

“So I wanted to do a challenge where I could encourage people to join me – and to do something I’m a little scared of. I don’t mess with water.”

For one of his tasks, Jared issued a plea on social media and found people willing to help him try out wild swimming every day in September.

“My whole message has always been to just get out there and do something,” he said.

“If you’re struggling with your grief, if you’re a bit worried about your health, just start with something small.

“Wild swimming sounds like it’s something big, but at the same time it is something that’s very small.

“Anyone can do it.” He believes it is never too late to start thinking about a healthier lifestyle.

“I think everyone wishes they were a little bit healthier, a little bit fitter, or able to do that little bit more,” he said.

“But it doesn’t change unless you do something about it.

“And it can really just be a simple thing such as reaching out to a friend, going for a walk.

“It’s the hardest thing in the world to reach out to a friend or the family or even to strangers on the internet to arrange these sorts of things.

“But that first step is always the hardest.

“Once you’ve taken that first step, everything else is so much easier.”

And he should know, he’s taken more than three million of them.

STEPPING OUT: Jared Scott kept to his word and didn’t stop for a whole year.

Jared completed the Three Peaks Challenge last July.

FORMER WIFE: Brenda Page was 32 in 1978 when she was found dead in a flat in Aberdeen.