For former Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer, every step on Saturday mornings has been a victory of late.

The world renowned pathologist and former co-medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia was devastated when an operation in March confirmed that his incurable brain tumour had returned.

But amid concerns he might have only weeks to live, he set some goals. Scolyer decided he would live as full a life as possible and relish the time he had left with his family – wife Katie and children Emily, Matthew and Lucy – and friends.

An enthusiastic triathlete, he also set a sporting goal: reaching his 250th Parkrun, the five-kilometre community event that attracts runners and walkers in 23 countries each Saturday morning.

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Scolyer was so committed that, five days after the operation, he walked the Greenway Parkrun at Haberfield in Sydney’s inner west, stopping exhausted and only able to finish after being brought something to eat.

Even during low weeks, when he says it felt like a fog had descended inside his head, he pressed on. Sometimes walking, other times running.

And on Saturday morning, more than 14 weeks after the operation and in June’s chilly Sydney temperatures, Scolyer made it.

A larger than usual crowd of more than 500 runners, swelled by well-wishers, journalists, photographers and TV crews, cheered Scolyer and Katie down the finishing chute for Parkrun number 250 at Haberfield.