I will be running the 2023 London Marathon as part of the Slimming World Team for Cancer Research UK.

The charity means a lot to me, particularly for this reason: My Slimming World journey started in 2018 after my father-in-law lost his battle with leukaemia. John participated in trials and underwent treatment, which thanks to Cancer Research UK, helped ease his pain and allowed John to share precious memories with my children which would have been very unlikely without the amazing work they have done and continue to do.

At the time I weighed over 27 stone. When I managed to walk around our local lake which is approx. a 1km loop I would have to stop twice on the route for a rest and drink. I was also on high dosage painkillers just to be able to get up and move. When we got home I would always end up laying on the sofa and I would be unable to move from here for that evening and usually in too much pain the following day to do anything due to the load my back was supporting.

 At the time I was missing out on so much. I was ashamed of myself. On a few occasions people had shouted offensive remarks about my weight when I have been out walking trying to lose some weight. I had also been shown posts on Facebook groups where groups of people had been mocking me about my size. Seeing and hearing these had contributed heavily to me not wanting to leave the house and be seen. Not only was I struggling due to the backache, but the mental side of things hugely impacted my life and more importantly, my children’s lives, as they were missing out on days out with their Dad.

Thanks to Slimming World I have lost over half of my body weight. I am doing things I could never have dreamed of a few years ago. I set myself small goals throughout this journey. At the time they seemed big goals such as getting out to ride a bike again and going to my local parkrun with my friends and family.

A few months after starting Slimming World I joined the Cycle to Work scheme through my work, ICU Medical. From the day that bike arrived I started cycling to and from work every day and shortly after scrapped my car! I soon invested in a turbo trainer and on days where I was unable to get out I would cycle on Zwift.

In 2019 I participated in my first parkrun. I was very nervous turning up. The mental side of the journey was once again creeping in and I was worried everyone would be staring at me, making fun of me and I was also not sure I would be able to complete the run. Obviously, it was nothing like this, it is just a big group of people who like to start their weekend off with a jog or walk around the local park and many of them sticking around for coffee and cake after.

I didn’t do a lot of parkruns after this though. I stopped in the summer months due to cricket and when covid came parkrun stopped. Cycling was my go to exercise and with the turbo trainer I didn’t need to leave the house during the pandemic to do this.

In January 2022, after some inspiration from my Slimming World consultant Julia who was running almost every day sharing her runs and many members of our Great Chart School group also sharing their success, I decided to get my running shoes back on and get down to parkrun again. I started doing a parkrun a month and also took Heidi to junior parkrun on a Sunday. I had challenged myself to run a 10km this year but couldn’t find the motivation to do this. In September 2022 I eventually set off for my 10km run and it was a struggle! That evening I could barely walk and the next 2 days I was in agony.

October 2022 and my mum and sister were participating in the Virtual London Marathon. My mum had injured herself in the weeks leading up and had shared her route with us. I decided to go along and run for 5-10km with her if my legs could hold out. This is when I found out that pacing yourself and good company really helps. I ended up running half a marathon with my mum and amazingly she completed the marathon well under her target time despite the injury. I had a real buzz from this experience and knew the next step for me was to push myself and achieve similar success from running.

That week I entered the ballot for the London Marathon, applied to join the Slimming World Marathon Team and joined my local running club, Ashford Striders. My first run with the group was the week after the London Marathon and there were many members of the club running who had just completed the marathon and were talking about the whole experience. Offering advice if I managed to get a place and let me know the club has training programs in place for next years marathon. I also started a training plan for long distance running and join the club on club runs every week.

In November 2022 I received the phone call from the Slimming World Marathon Team to accept my application to join the team and raise money for Cancer Research UK. I can’t thank them enough for this opportunity and I look forward to proudly wearing the Cancer Research UK / Slimming World kit at the 2023 London Marathon.

I am meeting some of my team mates on the 12th November at the Slimming World Awards 2022 where we will be running the Edgbaston Reservoir parkrun. That evening I will also be accepting my Slimming World Man of the Year award 😊

Please support me by donating or share my page to help support this wonderful charity.

Thank you

Dave

This incredibly inspiring and dedicated team of Slimming World members and Consultants, will celebrate their weight loss achievements by running the 2023 London Marathon on Sunday 23rd April. They will be raising money for three incredible charities Cancer Research UK, the Irish Cancer Society and Alzheimer's Research UK through Slimming World's own charity SMILES.