Our inspirational marathoner

We were so lucky that one of our supporters, Louise, ran the Virgin Money London Marathon for us in 2017.  Louise used to work for us so she has seen first-hand how amazing our students are and how much they benefit from our fundraising efforts.

The fact that she ran a marathon for us is incredible enough, but Louise’s story is particularly inspiring because she was meant to run for us last year but had to pull out due to sudden and severe ill health.   Not only did Louise find herself having to deal with being diagnosed with a long-term chronic illness, she also had to accept, with two weeks before she was due to run it, that she was now physically incapable of running a marathon.  As running the London Marathon had been her ambition for her whole adult life, and she had trained so diligently for it throughout the whole of winter and spring 2016, the news was devastating to Louise.

Moving forward, Louise took on marathon training all over again.  A marathon training schedule is a gruelling process for even the most healthy of people, so the fact that she overcame huge physical and personal battles in order to undertake this for us is nothing short of inspirational.  Louise raised in excess of £2,000.00 for us.

Prior to her run, Louise said:

“I had intended to run VLM last year but my health decided to take a vacation! After being poked and prodded I have been diagnosed with chronic anemia and Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease. After zero running for 9 months I have decided that I will run the marathon this year. This will be a battle for me physically and mentally. I have had to resign from my job that I love and in me doing this run I’m hoping to raise a little more funds for my little superstars at Five Acre Wood. It broke my heart to defer last year. Much love to those who supported then and now.”

Thank you Louise, we think you are amazing!