One mile at a time led to mum’s runaway success
A Stirling mum who could barely run a mile this time last year has raised a fourfigure sum for charity doing a half-marathon.
Superfit Lucy Fraser (43) finished the Brighton Half Marathon in one hour and 58 minutes – raising almost £2300 for Target Ovarian Cancer in the process.
She chose the charity as a show of support for her aunt Mary Matthews, who lives in the English seaside town and is currently undergoing her second round of chemotherapy as she battles the illness.
And having completed the gruelling challenge Lucy, a mum of three who lives near Borestone Primary School, is now preparing to take on this summer’s inaugural Stirling Scottish Marathon after clocking an impressive time in Brighton.
She confessed that the furthest she could run one year ago was a mile but was motivated to take up the activity so she could join her daughter Anna (8) who got interested in running through the daily mile initiative.
Lucy said: “I’ve always been really keen to run but was finding that I never quite managed to get out of the door with my running kit on.
“It was around this time last year that my daughter, who goes to Borestone Primary, decided she wanted to do the King’s Park run in aid of Sport Relief – so we went out on a couple of runs together.
“At that point I realised I wanted to do some more so I signed up for the Stirling Marathon as a way of motivating myself to keep going – I don’t think I quite realised the training and sacrifice I would have to make at the time.”
From there Lucy signed up and completed the Stirling 10k in September before heading south for the 13-mile charity challenge last month.
She said: “My aunt lives in Brighton so it’s been difficult to get down to support her. We used the half marathon as an excuse to have a family gettogether and there were around 10 of us who went down in total – including family from Newcastle, Manchester and Kent. We all had a great time.
“It seemed like a good opportunity to see my aunt while raising money and awareness for Target Ovarian Cancer.
“The support everyone has shown has been amazing and I’ve almost raised £2300 now. The money will help support women living with ovarian cancer, fund research into urgently needed new treatments and help them raise awareness of the illness.
“I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported me.”
Lucy was keen to highlight the symptoms of ovarian cancer – which include pelvic or abdominal pain, unexpected weight loss and extreme fatigue.
She said: “There’s so little known about ovarian cancer – it’s not something you often hear about – so I wanted to raise as much awareness as possible.
“My aunt only actually went to the GP after being encouraged to do so by a friend after she explained some of the symptoms. It’s important that as many people as possible are aware.”
After completing the half marathon in her target two hour time Lucy’s focus switched to this summer’s Stirling Scottish Marathon.
She added: “I went out on a 16mile run around Stirling at the weekend – I’m trying to add on one mile each week. I’m out two or three times each week and, while I always feel exhausted afterwards, I think my legs are getting used to running that distance.”
For more information on Target Ovarian Cancer see targetovariancancer.org.uk or visit their Facebook and Twitter pages.
I signed up for the Stirling Marathon as a way of motivating myself to keep going