Claire’s marathon effort to raise funds for MND

WITH her own sports therapy business, Claire Kelly had always been an active person.

So it was no surprise when Claire, from Alford in Aberdeenshire, started running marathons back in December 2009. She soon got a taste for long-distance events.

Although the mum-of-three had gathered sponsorship for the runs, fundraising hadn’t been her goal for taking part.

That all changed when her uncle, Dominic Byrne, from County Laois in Ireland, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Suddenly, she had a real purpose to raise cash.

She can distinctly remember a sunny evening bathing her sons, Lachlan and Adam, and thinking about her next marathon, Loch Ness 2013. It was at that point she decided that putting some real effort into fundraising would go a little way towards helping to beat MND.

The following spring she ran the Edinburgh Marathon and, after the birth of her third son, Jacob, she ran the Loch Ness 2015 Marathon.

Over the course of those three marathons she raised £1500 and decided to also take part in marathons in Paris and Brighton this year.

Last October, three weeks after Loch Ness, Claire lost her Uncle Domo.

Around the time of the funeral, the Dublin 2016 Marathon was announced, and she thought it would be a great way to keep her fundraising going. Soon, her three marathons in six months challenge turned into four in a year.

But she’d been mulling over a far bigger idea for quite some time – although she hadn’t mentioned it to anyone but her husband Chris – and that was 12 marathons in 12 months.

Claire decided to bite the bullet and commit herself to the lung-busting task.

She says the toughest part has been finding the hours to train and making sure it doesn’t interfere with her time with the kids or her job. So far she’s managed it. She’s now in the home straight with Fort William next month, Moray in September and finishing, fittingly, with Dublin in October.

She’s already smashed her fundraising goal of £1212 and hopes her efforts can give something back to MND in her uncle’s memory.

But Claire isn’t ready to throw away her running shoes as she crosses the finishing line – she’s already eyeing an