After a year’s worth of training, Kory Jenkins undertook 24 hours of Muay Thai – a martial art similar to kickboxing – over one weekend, raising money and awareness for cystic fibrosis.

The cause is close to his heart, as his sister, Jenn Chubb, was diagnosed with the disease at three months old.

For 12 hours on a recent Saturday and Sunday, Kory did bag and pad work and shadow boxing at New Era Athletics on White Rock Beach, where the public was invited to stop by and watch.

Observers also had the opportunity to try out some moves on the punching bag for a donation.

The event brought in $1,200 for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and donations continue to trickle in.

“It went really well,” Kory’s wife, Tina, said. “I think it’s the hardest I’ve ever seen him work.

“We’re really proud of him.”

Chubb was at her brother’s side to kick him off both Saturday and Sunday morning, doing the first hits on the bag.

“It was actually really sweet because after she left, every hour she would send him a text message... to remind him she’s still thinking about him,” Tina said.

While Kory knew he was in for a challenge, Tina said it was harder than he expected.

“He had moments during the day where he got really emotional because he realized, ‘OK, I’m really doing this.’ Definitely, towards the end of Sunday, his mind is like, ‘OK, I can still do this.’

“We were counting down the hours.”

Despite becoming frustrated that his body wouldn’t do what he wanted it to by the end of Sunday, Tina said he made a point to work extra hard for the last half hour.

“He kept busy and went out with a bang.”

Tina said Kory is pleased with how the fundraiser went, and is already coming up with ideas on how to improve it for next year.

“He’s really happy, and I think, of course, he wanted to raise some money, but I think another thing that he really wanted to do is just get the word out and make people more aware of what CF is,” she said. “We had a lot of chances to talk to people this weekend, and got to explain that to a lot of people.”

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