+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy
More

Why this 'British Forrest Gump' decided to run across 2 continents.

Jamie Ramsey just finished his 10,500-mile journey.

Meet Jamie Ramsey, the "British Forrest Gump."

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

He's a guy who loves to run — so much so that he just jogged from Vancouver, Canada, to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The journey? More than 10,500 miles (or 17,000 kilometers) by Ramsey's estimate.

On Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, Ramsey ended his trek with a light run from London's Heathrow Airport (where he landed after his adventure) to Westminster, in the center of the English capital. Because, you know, what's another dozen miles after jogging across two continents?

He invited any supporters to join him on that last leg of the journey. And his fans didn't disappoint.

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

His beard seemed to attract a friendly admirer or two.

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Ramsey's mom appeared over-the-moon to have him home...

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

...and Ramsey? He looked thrilled to have his hands on some champagne.

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

In order to make the journey work, Ramsey — who averaged about 26 miles a day during his trek — pushed a kit on wheels with all his belongings while he jogged. And get this: It weighed roughly 88 pounds (40 kilograms).

Whoa is right.

Why did Ramsey decide to do all this? Well, for starters, he simply missed the great outdoors.

Basically, Ramsey realized he wasn't getting any younger. And — after working that 9-5 life for quite some time — he got a bad case of wanderlust (who can blame him?).

Speaking to The Guardian back in April 2015 — about 8 months after starting his journey in Vancouver — he called the journey a "ridiculous adventure," but said that running gives him a "special insight" into other countries and the world around him:

"A lot of people ask why I am undertaking such a ridiculous adventure and the answer is pretty simple. I have worked in an office for 12 years. It felt to me like the window of opportunity to go and explore the world on foot was closing. I love running, always have, and will do it as long as my body allows me. Running through countries gives you a special insight, one that I think you lose in a car or on a bus."

Beyond his insatiable desire to jog, Ramsey wanted to raise funds for a few charities near and dear to his heart.

Because if you're going to get a bunch of attention for running, why not share the spotlight with a cause (or three)?

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

One of the nonprofits Ramsey supported is CALM — a charity in the U.K. aimed at curbing suicide in men. Through his fundraising page, he raised more than $2,100 (1,462 British pounds) for the organization.

He also raised funds for WaterAid, which helps underserved regions access safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as a third charity called Macmillan Cancer Care, which benefits those in the U.K. who've been affected by cancer.

"It has certainly been an experience, but one I have absolutely loved," Ramsey said of his travels, according to The Telegraph. "A sincere thank you to all those who have helped me succeed both during the expedition and back at home."

If you're in one of those quarter-life or midlife slumps (believe me, I get it), maybe you should take a note from Ramsey.

We don't have to run 10,500 miles to treat our wanderlust, though — focusing on something other than ourselves and penciling in a (small) adventure could do the trick.

Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul|YouTube

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
switched at dog daycare
Education

People are raving about how much easier it is to read with 'bionic reading' font

This viral tool could be a game-changer for some.

Photo via Canva, @WhattheADHD/Twitter

The 'bionic reading' font is designed to help keep you focused and read faster.

Reading is a fundamental tool of learning for most people, which is why it's one of the first things kids learn in school and why nations set literacy goals.

But even those of us who are able to read fluently might sometimes struggle with the act of reading itself. Perhaps we don't read as quickly as we wish we could or maybe our minds wander as our eyes move across the words. Sometimes we get to the end of a paragraph and realize we didn't retain anything we just read.

People with focus or attention issues can struggle with reading, despite having no actual reading disabilities. It can be extremely frustrating to want to read something and have no issues with understanding the material, yet be unable to keep your mind engaged with the text long enough to get "into" what you're reading.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Woman 'kidnaps' her baby to teach lazy husband a scary lesson

Did she go too far?

via Kroshka_Nastya/Freepik

A guy passes out on his bed eating pizza.

A 29-year-old woman had a baby girl, and after a brief maternity leave, she had to return to work. She couldn't afford childcare, so her husband, 35, reluctantly agreed to watch the baby while she was at work.

“It’s important to know that he’s been unemployed since 2021,” the woman wrote on Reddit’s AITA subforum. “He receives benefits. It’s also important to know that he’s extremely lazy. He doesn’t cook, clean, or help out in any way. I was nervous about leaving her home with her father, but I had no choice.”

The mother had reason to be worried about leaving her baby home alone with her husband, but in the beginning, things seemed fine. “When I came back from work, she was clean and sleeping. The next few times I came home, he was either playing with her, feeding her, or out for a walk with her. I was happy,” she wrote.

Keep ReadingShow less
moms
Joy

Only child asks her friends what it's like to grow up with siblings. They showed her instead.

"She got an entire childhood in less than a minute."

Lonnie IIV TikTok screenshots

Only child asks her friends what it's like to grow up with siblings.

Ahhh, siblings. Sometimes they're your best friends and other times your living room turns into an MMA octagon over the remote control. If you grew up with brothers and sisters, it's hard to imagine what it would be like to be an only child. (That's not to say you didn't dream about it when your sister stole your favorite shirt for the 30th time.)

But not everyone has siblings, so it can be equally as hard for someone who grew up as an only child to picture what it would be like to have them. Only children also likely had moments where they dreamt of having a little brother or sister, not realizing the literal torment siblings can inflict on each other.

TikTok creator Lonnie IIV recently posted a video of himself with two other friends seemingly out to lunch, when the girl in the group asked what it was like to grow up with siblings. In less than a minute she realized she lucked out being an only child because her two guy friends gave her a crash course in sibling behavior.

Keep ReadingShow less
funny video
Science

Drones fired ‘seed missiles’ into the dirt. A year later, the trees are already 20 inches tall.

Photo: courtesy BioCarbon Engineering/WikiCommons

Technology is the single greatest contributor to climate change but it may also soon be used to offset the damage we've done to our planet since the Industrial Age began.

In September 2018, a project in Myanmar used drones to fire "seed missiles" into remote areas of the country where trees were not growing. Less than a year later, thousands of those seed missiles have sprouted into 20-inch mangrove saplings that could literally be a case study in how technology can be used to innovate our way out of the climate change crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
enviornment
Health

Artists got fed up with these 'anti-homeless spikes.' So they made them a bit more ... comfy.

"Our moral compass is skewed if we think things like this are acceptable."

Photo courtesy of CC BY-ND, Immo Klink and Marco Godoy

Spikes line the concrete to prevent sleeping.


These are called "anti-homeless spikes." They're about as friendly as they sound.

As you may have guessed, they're intended to deter people who are homeless from sitting or sleeping on that concrete step. And yeah, they're pretty awful.

The spikes are a prime example of how cities design spaces to keep homeless people away.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trending Stories