A Man They Call The Bladerunner

He is a 42, a father of three, and in a month's time, will be racing in the 84km Adidas Sundown Marathon. What's more, he has plans to climb Mt Everest, and to run across the Sahara Desert. If that is not an inspiration, how about this?

Mohd Shariff Abdullah, of Shariff as he prefers to be called, has a prosthetic leg.

Throughout the conversation, I sat there in disbelief and awe of this man. Partly because I've just started running again myself, averaging about 4km, and already I am huffing & puffing by the end of the run. What excuse do I have -- even to complete the 10km -- if this man with a prosthetic leg can run an ultra marathon?

Shariff will attempt an 84km overnight race with a prosthetic leg.

We were curious to see what his prosthetic leg looked like. After all, he's not called The Bladerunner for nothing. Shariff dug into his bag and pulled out this sickle-looking contraption [pictured left]. He basically attaches it to his stump, and there are even rubber soles beneath, like regular shoes!

I wouldn't say it's light, but it's not heavy & clumsy either. Shariff describes it as a "spring" and says it's pretty hardy. It's only broken off once when he was running on rough, pebbled terrain. For an idea of the races he's completed, click here to read his blog.

I seriously don't think Shariff knows how inspiring he is. He kept thanking us for having him on our show, and saying that it's really nothing. I'm incredulous that he should think that, because he has broken down walls for me, and made me see that anything is possible, if you just set your mind to it.

If you'd liked to support him for his Mt Everest climb or his Sahara Desert run, do contact him. I don't think it's easy for him to raise enough funds for what he hopes to accomplish for Singapore, but we can all do out part to make his dreams come true. Contact him here.

Shariff showed me that if you set your mind to it, truly nothing is impossible.