Our 50 mile virtual run/walk is a personal challenge to encourage you to be active during the month of December, enabling you to see out the year on a positive, healthy note.

December can be a month where we overindulge and can neglect our health. Taking part in this challenge encourages you to keep active and healthy during the cold, winter months.

All we ask is to sign up, upload any distances you cover by either walking or running (via Strava, Garmin, Apple Health etc) and the participant who has accumulated the most distance over the month will win a trophy! You can view the leaderboard throughout  the event to keep you motivated and competitive!

This fundraiser is to raise money for Jersey Heart Support Group who I will be running for in the London Marathon in April next year. Having a heart condition myself, I realise how important it is to raise money for this incredible charity in which I am now Vice Chair.

Please read my story below as to why the charity is so important, not only to me, but many islanders living with heart conditions in the island.

At the age of just 32 I was diagnosed with breast cancer with Lymph node involvement. There was no history of breast cancer in the family and I had always kept myself healthy so this came as a huge shock. Treatment involved a double mastectomy with reconstruction using my back muscle, lymph node clearance, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I was then told I needed to have my ovaries removed as the cancer was hormone receptive. During my treatment my dear mum passed away from gallbladder cancer just 6 weeks after her diagnosis. Mum had been my rock throughout my treatment and this left us all in complete shock. I was then told I needed to also have my gallbladder removed as I had large gallstones and, given my mum’s quick passing and my own history of cancer, this was ruled the safest option. 

As I tried to get over everything those couple of years threw at me, I took up running to, not only keep myself healthy, but as an outlet of many emotions built up inside. I quickly progressed from Couch to 5K to 10k races, half marathons and finally I did the full London marathon in 2017. I wanted to prove to people that there is life after a cancer diagnosis and that it doesn’t define you as a person or limit you in what you can do.

Unfortunately in late 2019 my dad succumbed to cancer. I felt angry that this illness had taken someone else I loved. Covid hit shortly afterwards so limited time outside and grief affected my running. I was then hit by pneumonia in late 2021 and was told my heart was twice the size it should have been. Just a few short weeks later I found myself in the John Radcliffe hospital, Oxford having open heart surgery. When they restarted my heart back off the heart/ lung bypass machine it never went back into normal ‘sinus’ rhythm. I was left in what they called ‘heart block’. I desperately tried to get back running but the sheer exhaustion, erratic heart rate (both tachycardia and bradycardia) and palpitations made it so difficult. I was told that the only way I would improve and keep myself fit was to have a pacemaker. This was implanted on the 19th June this year. 

Whilst in recovery from this, I decided I wanted to run the London marathon again, exactly 10 years from the first one I had completed and just 9 months after my pacemaker implantation. I still get hit by exhaustion so this challenge is going to be very difficult but, once again, I want to prove to people that anything is possible, no matter how hard.

Part of my fundraising for the marathon (which is for Jersey Heart Support Group) is to encourage other people to get out in the fresh air and walk or run as much as possible at a time of year when it’s cold and dark and we often overindulge in Christmas goodies. Heart health is so important and exercise is a key component. 

Please take up this challenge and prove to yourself how resilient you can be! Finish the year on a real positive for your own health!