'We're very grateful' - viral 'FTD Brothers' complete their 24th marathon in Waterford
L-R: Mayor of Waterford City and County Cllr Seamus Ryan, Cian Adams, Jordan Adams, and Fine Gael Cllr Frank Quinlan. Photo: Alex Cunningham
At this year's London Marathon, not one, but two men became the first in history to shatter the glass ceiling of a sub-two-hour marathon. Once viewed as physiologically impossible, the achievement wiped away previous conceptions about the limits of human endurance.
But on the same day, approximately four hours after Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe first closed the finishing lines, spectators lined outside Buckingham Palace were witnessing another mind-boggling feat.
The sight of 31-year-old Jordan Adams hobbling over the finishing line with a 25-kilogram fridge on his back likely conjured up reactions equal parts intrigue and confusion.
When people became attuned to the true weight of the fridge, interest reached deafening levels.
As Jordan puts it, the fridge symbolises the existential burden he shoulders every day.
By his early 40s, doctors believe he has a 99.9% chance of developing a terminal form of Frontotemporal Dementia.
His younger brother Cian (25) has also been diagnosed with the disease.
The condition has torn through the Adams’ family. The brothers are from Worcestershire, but have seen the disease take the life of 12 of their Irish relatives, including their mother Geraldine (originally from Longford).
“Going back to 2010, Cian was a nine-year-old, I was 15, when mum was formally diagnosed with a rare form of familial FTD,” Jordan told the .
“Over the next six years that followed, we cared for her in the family home, watching her be stripped of everything that made her the beautiful, amazing person she was.
“Sadly, she died in 2016 at the age of 52, and just two years later, my genetic consultant delivered me the worst news of my life.
“As a 23-year-old, I am a carrier of the MAPT mutation, and that guarantees that I'm going to get FTD too.”
Jordan says the diagnosis has given him a “license to live”.
The day after the London Marathon, the brothers, who have been fundraising for dementia research since 2018, began their most ambitious challenge yet - 32 marathons, 32 counties, 32 days.
On Wednesday, May 20, they completed their marathon in Waterford, the 24th county in their challenge.
Schoolchildren swarmed the People’s Park to get a glimpse of the now viral ‘FTD brothers'.
They’ve amassed 645,000 followers on Instagram and have raised €1.5 million for dementia research over the past weeks.
Notable supporters include the Prince of Wales and Tánaiste Simon Harris, who has invited the brothers to Government buildings upon the completion of their marathon.
The brothers have said they intend to use the meeting as a means to raise issues with the holes in the Irish healthcare system and the plights of ordinary people struggling with dementia.
Cian Adams, who is acting as his brother’s physiotherapist in chief, told the the initial goal was to raise more than €100,000.
“The main thing that means a lot to us is the local community coming out in counties that we've never even been to,” Cian said.
“We spent more time as children in Longford and Leitrim, where our family are from, and obviously the old stag dos in Dublin, but in terms of the other counties, there's lots of places that we're just strangers to them.
“We've got kids coming out of school, people coming out of work today in Waterford on a midweek day… we’re very grateful for that.”
Jordan admits the support and ensuing media frenzy behind their challenge has been overwhelming.
Speaking to the brothers, you’re left astonished by their energy.
Finishing the marathon, Jordan’s body is physically battered - his shins are painted with Deep Heat - yet his social battery when speaking to supporters never runs flat.
“We’re trying to remain present in every county that we're in, and just soaking up all the support, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.
“We arrived in a county we've never been to again today, in a great city, ran past so many schools with excited school children waiting out there for over an hour for some of them, just to see us run past and high five them.
“Had a lady break her 10k time, broke an hour for the first time in her life today, we're just inspiring people to get out there and get moving.”
Their route in Waterford took them over Rice Bridge and through Ferrybank, before looping back onto Waterford’s greenway and eventually descending down the Cork Road.
They finished their marathon at Comfort Keepers’ offices beside Reginald’s Tower. Comfort Keepers are home care providers, and have been the primary sponsors of the FTD Brothers' journey throughout Ireland.
Emma Daly, Client Service Manager at Comfort Keepers Waterford, said the challenge was special for staff, many of whom had family members touched by the familiar pain of dementia.
Glenn Adams cut the figure of a proud father on the day. He said he wanted his sons to help grow awareness of dementia as a whole, not just the strain of FTD that has blighted their family.
He told the about the pain of telling his three children for the first time about their mother’s diagnosis. Jordan and Cian have an older sister, Kennedy, who has managed to avoid the disease.
“Imagine trying to tell a nine-year-old that his mum’s - I didn't say dying, I said ‘mum's very ill, she's not going to get better, and she's going to deteriorate, and we’re going to lose mum.'
“That's something that was a real struggle for the three of them that manifested itself in different ways.
“We thought Kennedy might have had Crohn's disease, she had upsets. Jordan became very angry, and Cian was struck down with acute anxiety, it made him worried about all sorts of things.”
The decision for the siblings to get tested for the gene played out in seemingly slow motion, the cruellest game of roulette one could imagine.
But as Glenn puts it, Jordan’s diagnosis and the brutal inevitability of his condition also acted as the catalyst for change - “the licence to live.”
“At 18 or 19 the young man (Jordan), was drinking way too much, getting himself into trouble, and it was no way to live his life.
“Once he decided to get the test and he got the wrong result, he made the decision that it's time to change his life, see what he could do for other people, and he's been on a very driven mission since then.
“I'm proud of all three.”
