In episode 352 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Tom Festa.
We came across Tom through friend of the pod Mark Ferris as Tom was fundraising for Mark’s stepson Callum and his treatment for brain cancer through his ‘Race Around The World’ journey.
Initially starting it as a personal journey for himself, Tom came across Callum’s GoFundMe page.
He didn’t know Callum or his family but after finding out about Callum’s love for education, as a teacher himself, he chose Callum’s story to fundraise for.
In May 2025, he took his mum out to Canada with him and he ran his first half-marathon.
From there, he travelled to Brazil and ran his first marathon on August 31st 2025.
Then, in October 2025, he travelled to China and did a 7-day trek up and down the Great Wall, walking over 65,000 kilometres.
And finally, he flew to Perth in Australia, where he completed an ‘ironman’ in December 2025 and visited some family members. His friends also flew out and joined him out there too.
Tragically, in-between the time we organised this podcast and recorded it, on 26th January 2026, Callum died from the cancer he had been getting treatment for, with his funeral held on Friday 13th February 2026.
In this episode we discuss the origins of Tom’s fitness journey, which came following the end of a 10-year-relationship. We discuss the aftermath of it, the crisis it provoked and how he used the campaign to give him a new purpose of raising money for Callum for the time he did.
For Tom’s mental health journey, we discuss the grief of losing his grandfather on his mum’s side, which brought on a form of cleaning OCD and health OCD which became permanent in him.
We unpack the traits this presented in his mental health back then and why, why it carried on beyond the grief and into adulthood and whether it presented in him prior to that point under the surface.
We then discuss how he’s managed the OCD, navigated a healthy life alongside it, and how running has quietened these traits for the period of time he’s been doing it for.
As always, #itsokaytovent
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