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While the “where do you get your protein?” question still arises in some circles, the increasing numbers of world-class athletes are helping to rapidly dispel that myth.

People are starting to see that a plant-based diet is better for your bod, and world record-holding vegan marathoner Fiona Oakes has been proving this paradigm true for more than a decade.

After having surgery to remove her kneecap and knee joint as a teenager, Oakes was told she’d never walk again. Fast forward to now, and at 48, she holds a whopping three world records.

Now she’s about to set out on a 150-mile run across the Sahara Desert in her latest run to raise money for her true passion, Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary, reports the BBC.

This is hardly her first time running an extreme distance. Oakes was the fastest woman to run seven marathons in seven continents (plus the North Pole) with a total time of 31 hours 11 mins and 53 secs. She’s also been in the top 20 in the London Marathon, won a lot of other races, and been to some seriously extreme places — IE, in Antartica, the North Pole, etc. She’s even run in a cow costume to raise awareness for animal cruelty. CNN called her ‘Queen of the Extreme’. 

In the end, all her achievements are for one thing: the animals.

“I don’t know where my medals are, I don’t have photographs and I don’t keep trophies in cabinets or anything like that. I’m not doing it for that reason,” Oakes told the BBC. “The motivation is all around me, I do it very specifically for the animals and what I believe in.”

Oakes and her husband have owned the sanctuary for 17 years, and it’s home to approximately 400 animals, the BBC reports.  You can donate to Oakes’ efforts on her GoFundMe page.

Click here to watch the full interview from the BBC.