A former strongman lost 188 pounds to run 48 marathons in 48 days in aid of combatting food poverty

• Britain's former strongest man is running 48 marathons in 48 days to raise money to combat food poverty.
• "It's the perfect marriage of stupidity and charity," John Clark told Insider.
• Half of the money raised will be donated to his own charity, Miles4Meals.

"I feel like my Achilles is going to snap," John Clark said as he and a small group of supporters ran down a bumpy country lane in Shropshire on Wednesday.

He briefly stopped running to walk, before checking his watch and taking off again.

Clark, Britain's former natural strongest man, is currently in the process of running a world record 48 marathons in 48 days across England's 48 counties in aid of tackling food poverty.

Aptly named "The 48/48/48" - Wednesday's marathon was his 45th in as many days.

"Every part of my body hurts," he told Insider after finishing. "But now the attention turns to tomorrow."

Miles4Meals

In a former life, Clark, 35, was both a semi-professional rugby player and world renowned strongman.

He was forced to give up rugby after breaking his neck. His strongman career - which saw him win three national titles as a "natural" strongman, competing while committed to avoiding performance enhancing-drugs - ended prematurely due to a knee injury.

After a brief foray into martial arts and beginning a weight loss journey that has since him shift a massive 188 pounds and counting, he decided to delve into the world of charity challenges after hearing the story of a terminally ill young boy with leukaemia in Hong Kong.

"I ended up doing a 24 hour SkiErg to try and raise £10,000 ($14,000) for him," Clark told Insider. A SkiErg is an upright rowing machine that simulates the motion of Nordic skiing.

"I did, and I broke a world record too."

"From there, all these charity challenges have come about."

"The 48/48/48" is Clark's latest and hardest in a growing line of challenges. The money raised will be split between food bank charity, the Trussell Trust, and his own food charity, Miles4Meals.

People living in food poverty don't have enough money or to buy or access to sufficient nutritious food.

The United Kingdom's rate of food poverty is among the worst in Europe. Nearly six million adults and 1.7 million children were living in food poverty, according to a government report.

"The two main points of the charity are to raise awareness and remove the stigma around food poverty, and then raise funding to make a difference," said Clark, whose family relied heavily on food banks when he was young after his dad was paralyzed after falling off a roof.

"A lot of people that use food banks have just fallen on hard times. You're never going to eradicate food poverty because people will always fall on hard times that are not within their control.

"We just want to make sure that people who are in difficult times are able to access these services, which are currently oversubscribed, so that they can then get back on their feet."

'The 48/48/48' started over a few beers

Like many of the best plans, Clark's idea for the "The 48/48/48" began in a pub.

"I'd recently watched a documentary about a guy in America that has run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days," he said.

"And I was sat down with a few of the lads just having a chat, and I was like 'I wonder if anyone has ever done that in England?' Googled it. They hadn't, and it just planted the seed. It's the perfect marriage of stupidity and charity."

Such a mammoth task was going to require some help, however. Clark found ambassadors in as many counties as possible, which would act as the base for his daily marathon.

They would also help spread the word of the challenge, inviting members or local runners to join Clark for his marathon.

In Shropshire on Wednesday, around 15 people joined, while in Northampton last weekend, over 100 tagged along for the ride.

In Devon, 50 school children joined him for the final five kilometers.

"The ambassadors have made it," said Clark. "I could have just run 48 marathons on my own.

"We would have raised awareness of the challenge, probably raised money, but we wouldn't have raised awareness of child poverty."

Clark has raised almost £27,000 ($37,000). While the money he says is "incredible" - the conversations he has sparked have made him most proud.

"People that have said to me: 'I actually lived in food poverty, but I've always been scared to talk about it and and felt like I should be ashamed of it, but now I can speak freely about it,'" he said.

"I think a large issue that you've got with food poverty is the stigma around it, that it's work shy people claiming [unemployment] benefits. And it's really not.

"The fact that we've had been able to spark these conversations and have these conversations with the media, to be able to have those education-based discussions, that's what has been really eye opening for me."

Clark's mission has just begun

While he would be forgiven for taking some rest after finishing the last of his 48 marathons, Clark has already got eyes on his next challenges.

Next year he plans to complete a full Ironman, the Marathon des Sables - a six-day ultramarathon through the Sahara desert - and finally the Atlantic Rowing Race, all for charity.

The Marathon des Sables will be in aide of Miles4Meals, while the Atlantic Rowing Race - an ocean rowing race from the Canary Islands to the West Indies which usually takes around a month to complete - will be to raise money for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM).

"I'm part of a four-man crew and we're trying to raise a quarter of a million pounds ($342,000) for CALM," he said.

"It's a pretty punishing target."

He means the fundraising, not the distance.

To donate to John's cause, click here.