British man set to finish running length of Africa after robbery ordeal and going missing in jungle

A British man running the length of Africa is set to complete the gruelling challenge.

Russ Cook, who calls himself “Hardest Geezer” on social media, has been running for 350 days and crossed the border into Tunisia on Thursday night.

The 26-year-old, from Worthing, West Sussex, is hoping to complete the 16,000km challenge on Sunday and will be joined by supporters for the final stretch.

He says he will become the first person to ever run the full of length of Africa if he completes the challenge.

He began his journey at Cape Agulhas, South Africa – the southernmost point of the African continent – in April 2023.

Mr Cook has been raising money for two charities along the way and has recently seen a surge in donations.

In the last seven days, he has raised more than £217,000 of his £568,000 total.

He is fundraising for The Running Charity, which supports the mental health of young people with complex needs or who are homeless, and Sandblast which educates people about Sahrawi culture.

But his journey hasn’t always been smooth.

In Angola, he and his team were robbed at gunpoint. They had cameras, phones and passports stolen.

Then in August, Mr Cook went missing. He was separated from his supporters for days in the jungle in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They eventually managed to free him by paying off villagers who were armed with machetes.

And in January, he turned to social media to help get a visa to cross the border from Mauritania into Algeria.

At the time, he said his challenge could end without the visa as there was “no other way” for him to reach the northern tip of Africa.

“It is all hanging in the balance, to be honest,” he posted.

After a huge social media campaign, the Algerian Embassy said it would grant him a courtesy visa “on the spot”, meaning he could cross the border.

Although the run across Africa is his biggest challenge, it isn’t his first.

At 22, Mr Cook ran Asia to England, completing 71 marathons in 66 days.

He had only run the Brighton Marathon before he decided to run from Asia to England.