Welcome to my Just Giving page for the Robin Hood Half-Marathon event on Sunday 24^th September 2023, where I’ll be raising money for the Juvenile Diabetic Research Foundation (JDRF).

For those of you that have known me a long time, this whole notion probably comes as a shock and you’re wondering if you’ve got the right Greg Hill – well, yes you have! It’s me; the lazy, short-legged, poker-playing diabetic golfer. The guy whose idea of running only came if I was going to be late for last orders! Well, here’s some news; I run now (as an actual hobby) and I’ve entered a half marathon (bloody hell!)

It goes without saying that I’ve not run a half marathon before (I mean, why would you, right?!) – but back in 2020 when Covid hit, the golf courses were closed and we were only allowed out for an hour a day, I decided to try running. I was terrible! (still am really) – but I actually found that I loved it!

I’m a competitive chap (obvious understatement) and being able to see my progress and compete with myself was a huge motivator, as was getting fit. I progressed quite quickly, did ‘Couch to 5K’ and started to feel like an actual ‘runner’ within about a year and now I run 7km-10km once or twice per week.

During Covid lockdowns, I also signed up to the ‘Dream Academy’ at work (thank you, Interflora), which got me access to some dream coaching, where I would be coached towards achieving a dream or goal. It needed to be something that I hadn’t done before but had always wanted to do but didn’t really know how to get there. Run a half marathon, I thought! And that was that!

In my first 1-1 session, I sat down with Alastair Hill (no relation), a ‘Dream Coach’.  As a naturally lazy individual, initially I thought Al might do all the work for me; pick a race, research it, design a training plan etc and it would be easy for me, but it turns out the doing it and making it happen was all on me! And that’s possibly why it never happened! Although, to be fair, a few things got in the way, I got busy, picked up an injury and ultimately, self-doubt crept in and I sort of gave up the idea – but now is the time! I’m not getting any younger and there’s no cure for diabetes (yet!!!!)

A bit of background; I’m a type 1 diabetic and have been for 28 years. It makes life hard if I’m honest! It might look like I’m smashing it every day, that life is a breeze and I’m not letting my condition affect my life, (yeah, right!) but for people like myself with a chronic autoimmune disease, it literally makes every day of trying to keep my blood sugars on track, a huge battle. I self-inject insulin at least 4 times per day (5 or 6 times on a bad day) and hundreds of tiny decisions have to be made by myself each day just to stay alive! It turns out that making every decision manually for one of your own organs that is just supposed to just work, is actually quite physically and mentally tiring (think about that for a minute)!.

I’ve coped with it though, probably better than most actually and I’m proud of how I manage my diabetes, but it is hard work!

Running a half marathon as a type 1 diabetic isn’t going to be easy! But hey, Steve Redgrave has 5 Olympic gold medals! Theresa May was Prime Minister! and James Norton performs on a West End stage for 4 hours at a time, so no excuses!

Now that I am a father, I’ve taken an interest in learning more about diabetes and in particular how it develops in young people. I happened across the ‘ELSA’ study that the JDRF are co-funding (link here The ELSA Study: Screening UK children for type 1 diabetes - JDRF, the type 1diabetes charity). It has been set up to find out a child’s likely % risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

The ELSA study is testing 20,000 children aged 3-13 for antibodies in their blood that, if found to be present, will mean a higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes. It is available to all children in the UK and there doesn’t need to be a family history of diabetes to sign up. Spotting the signs and symptoms early and being aware that it will develop in a child is vital to helping them manage the condition and to not become too sick when it does eventually manifest.

Having lived with this disease for almost 30 years and having had it since I was a child – and now having a child of my own that looks up to me and sees me as a role model, I’m determined to show her that despite me having type 1 diabetes, Daddy can do anything! 

Hopefully, I’ll inspire my daughter to follow her dreams and do something amazing with her life, regardless of any adversity she may face and encourage her to not let anything stop her in her tracks – wherever those tracks take her in her life!

The JDRF are dedicated to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes but they need constant funding. Trials like ELSA are critical in them learning more about type 1 diabetes and maybe one day, they’ll find a cure – or at least make living with diabetes easier and easier every day for the millions of young people that have it globally.  

Please give what you can for this fantastic charity and I’ll do my best to put one foot in front of the other for 13.1 miles as quickly as I can around the streets and parks of Nottingham on September 24^th. 

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