Walking the Talk

By Sarah Halfpenny Photos Gary Sissons

Jason Vaux doesn’t live on the Mornington Peninsula, but for the past two years, it’s become his second home. Three times a week, the 33-year-old makes the 25-minute drive from Berwick to join a community that’s helped transform his life – the Olivers Hill Run Club in Frankston.

It’s here, amongst the pre-dawn risers and cold-water dippers, that he found not just friendship, but the support to attempt something extraordinary: walking a marathon with cerebral palsy.

The journey started with a casual invitation from his brother-inlaw, Adam, one of the original members of the run club when it launched in late 2023. “At the start of January 2024, he said to me ‘I’m going to continue doing this run club thing’ and he was a little bit vague on what it included. ‘I just go up and down a hill. There’s a group of us, and I do a cold dip at the end. You should come!’ And I asked if he was going the next day and he said he was, so I said I’d come along!” Jason recalls.

That spontaneous decision marked a turning point. Jason was struggling and needed a change: something that would challenge him physically while giving him the mental reset he desperately needed. “I wanted to get into some sort of physical discipline to improve my headspace. I’d gone through a bit of a rough patch, and Adam could see that I was maybe a bit stale in where I was in my life,” he explains.

At the run club Jason met Connor Sahely, who would become one of his closest friends. Their connection is so strong that people assume they’ve been mates since childhood. “Because we’re very close and we’re pretty much best friends now, a lot of people ask if we grew up together or went to school together. But I just met him when I started at the Olivers Hill Run Club,” Jason says.

I wanted to get into some sort of physical discipline to improve my headspace

Connor, a myotherapist and strength and conditioning specialist, became Jason’s trainer, mentor, therapist, and the architect of his marathon training plan. The idea emerged about 14 months ago.

“I said to Connor that I really wanted to test myself. I wanted to try and walk a marathon,” Jason remembers. “He said ‘You need to do a fair bit of training. It’s not something you’re just gonna be able to do. We need to follow a process, but I’ll help you if you want to do it.’”

Jason’s progression was methodical – five kilometres, then 10, then 15, building up to a punishing 32-kilometre effort in August 2024. “That was the hardest walk I’ve done. I really wanted to give up,” he admits. “My mind started to turn against me, and it was just physically very hard.” But he pushed through, drawing on reserves of mental strength that cerebral palsy has forced him to develop.

“With everything I’ve been through in my life, and everything I still want to do, I know I want to live a full life, and I want to push myself,” he says. “I want to have purpose. I speak about this a lotpurpose and dedication and discipline and resilience.”

On 10 August 2025, Jason walked 42.2 kilometres around Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. The marathon took nine hours and 18 minutes of moving time, with about an hour and 45 minutes in rest breaks for carefully timed nutrition stops. Around 50 to 60 people visited him throughout the day, with about 15 walking the entire distance alongside him.

The event also raised funds for Scope Australia, the organisation that supported Jason from ages 3 to 18 with physiotherapy, social groups, and equipment.

Remarkably, despite falling at least a couple of times a week in normal life, Jason didn’t fall once during the marathon. “I’ve never walked that distance before, and I’ve never not fallen when I’ve been on the go for five or six hours, so that was incredibly strange and great,” he marvels.

The marathon meant more than ticking off a personal goal. “It wasn’t just about the walk. I wanted to do it for a bigger reason – to improve society in some small way. Raising funds is one way that I know to do that,” Jason says. He’s passionate about challenging misconceptions around disability. “A lot of people think our life is very limited and bland. And I would say that it’s up to the person to try and equip themselves with opportunity and friendships and chances to create a life that’s fulfilling and of purpose.”

Recently Jason has transitioned from his eight-year case management role at Mission Australia to pursue motivational speaking. He recently delivered his first speech alongside Connor at Ray White Real Estate, and is seeking opportunities to speak at schools, businesses, and mental health organisations about resilience, mental health, and not being a prisoner to one’s circumstances.

For anyone feeling limited by their situation, Jason’s perspective is clear. “The circumstance isn’t our full identity. It’s part of us, but it’s not everything,” he says. “If we don’t think about the things that we can do, and we always think about the things that we’re prevented from doing, then we never grow.”

The circumstance isn’t our full identity. It’s part of us, but it’s not everything

As for what’s next, Jason has set his sights on an ambitious goal: learning to jog. For someone who’s never had that ability, it represents another frontier to push. With Connor’s help and the support of his peninsula community, there’s little doubt he’ll get there – one determined step at a time.

Learn more about Jason on Instagram.

IG @jase.speaks