Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This will be my first and possibly, only, full marathon I will ever do. And I plan to run it all, no walking. My aim is to demonstrate to myself my mental and physical resilience, in both the training and race itself.

I went through a very challenging period 6 years ago when I experienced stress, anxiety and deep depression, resulting in me being medically retired from a job I loved, putting on 6 stone in weight, and spending over 2 years unable to leave my home.

With the support of my family I slowly regained my health and started to lose the weight I'd gained, plus an extra stone. Then I discovered running.

Early in 2015 I followed the NHS Couch to 5k programme with my lovely friends and neighbours Michaela and Teresa. I'd never run before......and hadn't participated in any sport since my school years. We enjoyed it so much, we joined parkrun and then took the decision to join Wigston Phoenix Running Club, who have been so amazingly supportive. In October of that year I did my first half marathon - Leicester. 

Unfortunately in December 2015 I was taken seriously ill with a life threatening condition. Part of my bowel had necrotised and needed to be removed in an emergency operation. My consultant said afterwards, that had I not lost the weight and started exercising, my outcome could have been very different. I nearly died.

With the support of my family and running friends I gradually returned to fitness and ran the Milton Keynes half marathon at the beginning of May 2016 and another 3 half marathons later that year.

Running keeps me both physically and mentally well. Although I still go through periods of relapse with anxiety and depression but manage to hide it most of the time. Whoop whooping helps 😂

Many of the children who will benefit from my fundraising go through such terrible experiences that I want to be able to make a difference to their lives, albeit very small.

Please support me by donating however much you can. I am very grateful for any money that you can give.

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