Introducing veteran raw vegan runners Alan Murray and Janette Murray-Wakelin
Throughout the year 2013, to inspire and motivate conscious lifestyle choices, to promote kindness and compassion for all living beings and to raise environmental awareness for a sustainable future, we ran together around Australia, 15,782km, running 366 marathons (43 km) each in 366 days, no days off. On January 1, 2014, we acquired world acclaim by setting a new World Record as the only couple over the age of 60 fuelled entirely on raw fruit and veg, wearing barefoot shoes, to run 366 consecutive marathons while Running Raw Around Australia.
We have been actively following a raw vegan lifestyle for over 17 years after Janette was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had 6 months to live. As a result, the lifestyle choices she made with the support of Alan, set us both on a journey to optimal health. As veteran ultra endurance runners, we have proven beyond any doubt that living a raw, vegan conscious lifestyle results in optimal health where physically, mentally and emotionally, anything is achievable.
Since finishing our record breaking Run Around Australia, we have been inundated with global media interviews for TV, Radio, Podcasts, Newspapers, Magazines and Blogs. We have been invited to speak at schools, festivals, seminars and conferences throughout Australia and worldwide, including the Toronto Raw Vegan Festival and the Toronto ideacity Conference in Canada, the Woodstock Fruit Festival in New York, Raw Vegan Festival in Hong Kong and the Vegan Summit in LA.
In March 2014, we were approached by a filmmaker and film production company to make a documentary of cinematic standard based on our Run Around Australia and the positive message that it conveys, with the intention of showing the documentary in cinemas worldwide.This was a fantastic opportunity to help bring about the change we all want to see in this world, a positive change for the future.A short version of the film, ‘RAW the Documentary’, was selected and screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, France in May 2015 and the finished film was released in February 2017 to rave reviews in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia. It was officially selected and screened with The Australian Transitions Film Festival throughout Australia. During 2018, ‘RAW the Documentary’ will be screened in Paris, France and as an official selection at the American Documentaries Film Festival (AMDOCSFF) in California, USA. Further screenings in USA, Europe, Australia and Asia are pending.
‘RAW the Documentary’ is now available on DVD (PAL and NTSC formats) through this website.
Janette is the author of the highly acclaimed book “Raw Can Cure Cancer’ (now in it’s 5th edition) and her second book, ‘Running Out of Time’, based on the Run around Australia was released in New York during August 2014.
Our Story in Brief
Originally from New Zealand and now residing in Far North Queensland, Australia, we have many stories to tell about our very diverse, adventurous life. Our personal lifestyle throughout 48+ years of marriage and raising a family, having a successful business partnership, and extensive world travel, has always been centered around health and wellness and sharing our consciousness with others.
From sailing in our 40′ sailboat with our two young children throughout New Zealand, the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea, to working our 400-ton freight boat on the inland waterways of Europe; from traveling in our converted bus from Holland to Portugal while home schooling our children, to residing on Vancouver Island Canada while our children went to University; and from operating a 100′ hotel boat in France taking guests on health oriented canal cruises, to running the length of New Zealand with the support of our two (now adult) children, we enjoyed a physically active, healthy and conscious lifestyle throughout our traveling years with our family.
But the next chapter in our lives created the biggest challenge. At 52, Janette was diagnosed with breast cancer and the prognosis was only 6 months or possibly a year with conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Janette knew that environmentally, her immune system had been compromised and to compromise it further didn’t make sense. Knowing the value of exercise and the benefits of a healthy diet, Janette chose to help her body heal itself of cancer, by boosting the immune system with the natural nutrients it needed and increasing the oxygen in the blood through exercise and juicing fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, she is living proof that the body is capable of healing itself. The Raw Vegan Path that we took, resulted in an inevitable journey to more healthy conscious living and the passion to share our (extensive) knowledge and experience with others.
We founded a Centre for Optimum Health in Canada, where our focus was on encouraging healthy conscious lifestyles through living nutrition and exercise for the mind, body and spirit. Our vision was to share our knowledge gained through our multitude of life experiences, and to encourage natural, healthy conscious lifestyles within our community. We established a highly successful Living Food & Conscious Lifestyle Course and shared our secrets of good health through a series of inspirational presentations internationally during the following ten years. The response was overwhelming with hundreds of people being encouraged to make their own informed choices with regard to diet, exercise and maintaining a healthy and conscious lifestyle. Many now attest to experiencing positive changes to their health and overall well being.
Our approach to healthy living is as simple and clear as nature itself. Learning how to live a healthy conscious lifestyle with an emphasis on nutrition and exercise, gives people the possibility to prevent disease, or reverse health issues they may be struggling with – such as being overweight, having addictions ranging from sugar to smoking, and even problems as serious as diabetes and cancer.
Based on Janette’s experience with cancer, we believe that healthy minds create a healthy community and that education and learning is an all important factor in the growing process, both for individuals and for a community. We share the story of Janette’s journey with cancer and the knowledge we gained along the way of the healing properties of living foods and essential exercise, so that others may have the opportunity to make informed conscious choices themselves.
When Alan changed his eating habits, stopped smoking and started exercising, he completely turned his life around. Fifteen years earlier, Alan was a 2-pack-a-day smoker, was overweight, often sick and had little or no energy. In the space of one year he lost 50 lbs, he went from being unable to run one city block to completing his first marathon (42km) and he has not been sick since.
We have both participated in many international marathons and ultra runs, and to celebrate the year 2000 and Janette’s 50th year, we ran the length of NZ covering 2182km running 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days! The amazing thing to most people is that our main source of energy came from fresh organic fruit and vegetables, juices, juiced wheatgrass and green smoothies!
Thirteen years after our NZRun, we ran 366 consecutive marathons, 15,782 km around Australia, to show by example what is possible when when making conscious lifestyle choices.
Following a Conscious Lifestyle has made a huge difference in our lives. We believe that everyone can benefit from learning how to take control of their own health to live a happy, healthy, kind and compassionate conscious lifestyle.
