Cameron Orr, a personal trainer from Hackney, was at gymnastics practice at the end of July when he suffered a nasty accident while attempting different acrobatics.
Video footage of the incident shows the 26-year-old running up to the mat and flipping over a distance of 10m – before landing incorrectly on his right leg and crashing to the ground.
Cameron says the bone “snapped” immediately – causing him “unbelievable” pain.
Since July, he has undergone a lengthy recovery process including surgery.
Cameron Orr’s X-ray shows the break in his leg following a front flip he’d done multiple times before. (Image: Cameron Orr / SWNS)
Now he is preparing to run a marathon in support of Pancreatic Cancer UK – despite never having run more than 5K.
Cameron said: “I was trying a 10m front flip and I came down wrong.
“I knew immediately I had broken something. The pain was just unbelievable.”
He was taken to Newham University Hospital where he underwent surgery.
“I then had to spend several weeks with my foot elevated, hopping around on crutches,” he added.
“It changes things because you’re no longer just trying to recover from a broken leg.
“You’re also trying to recover from a serious surgery.”
The active athlete struggled when he became essentially bed-bound.
He said: “I was almost hyper-optimistic about what I would be able to do at first. But then when reality set in, I wallowed.
“I wasn’t eating, I stopped messaging people. I was doom-scrolling all the time.”
However, gradually he found new things to focus on and in December he decided to sign up for the Flawed Hero Marathon in April, despite not being cleared of physio until this month.
He said: “I’m looking to reclaim agency over my body and mind in a big way – by setting [my own] Everest to climb.
“Part of me is going to hate this process. It’s going to be gruesome.
“But I never thought I’d run a marathon. So I just thought, ‘Let me challenge something I’m so certain about’.”
Cameron is raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK on behalf of the Flawed Hero Movement, which hosts the Flawed Hero Marathon.
He said: “I chose to run the marathon with the Flawed Hero Movement because their marathon is for people who feel like they have no business doing one.
“But we’ll all achieve that together.”
You can donate to Cameron’s GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/flawed-hero-movement-2025-pancreatic-cancer-cam0fit
