A young architect spent all of Christmas week running in aid of the organisation that helped his family through one of their toughest times when an uncle was diagnosed with a terminal illness a few years back.

Twenty-nine-year-old Luca Zarb ran seven marathons in seven days last week, to help raise funds for Hospice Malta – which provides palliative care to patients with terminal illnesses – and which helped his uncle, George Mizzi, through cancer up until his death in 2018.

“Hospice helped my uncle a lot during his last months of palliative care,” Zarb told Times of Malta after successfully finishing his last marathon on Friday.

“And it inspired me to give something back to the organisation.”

Zarb ran a marathon – 42.2 kilometres – every day from December 21 to 27. He even ran one on Christmas Day and covered a total distance of 294 kilometres over the entire week.

“I was essentially crossing Malta every day,” Zarb said, describing his daily routine of waking up at 6am, starting his run by 7am, and finishing by 1pm. He only stopped briefly to rehydrate and eat. He covered a different route every day and said the most beautiful was the one from Golden Bay to Marsascala along the southern coast.

And it inspired me to give something back to the organisation

Zarb, an avid runner, has completed several marathons before, but this was his most difficult to date, as he had to run multiple marathons back to back. But he was motivated by the support of other people who joined him on his runs.

“Mentally I was doing well because other people were invited to join the run and I always had someone to talk to,” he said. 

“Even on Christmas Day people came along, and on the final day we were a group of 28 people running.”

“Knowing we were doing something good for people who are suffering made us feel very hopeful and proud, and when they heard I was doing it, people approached with their own stories of illnesses and suffering,” he said.

“I’m very thankful for the people who followed me and were supporting me throughout the journey, and I’m extremely proud and speechless with the support and good reception I got.”

People may still donate on hospicemalta.org/product/support-sevenxseven/.