RUNNING ROSIE, 71 FUELLED BY SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE
WHEN most 71-year-olds break their hip they see that as a sign that it may be time to take it easy – at least for a little while. Not many view it as a once in a lifetime opportunity – but one pensioner sees it as just that.
Rosie Swale-Pope, from Tenby, has just returned from running across the United States, alone, pulling all her kit in a cart behind her.
Born as Rosie Griffin in Switzerland, her Swiss mother was suffering from tuberculosis and her Irish father was serving in the British Army.
When Rosie was two her mother died. She went to live with her paternal grandmother Carlie, who was bedridden with osteoarthritis in Askeaton in County Limerick, Ireland.
It was here that the seed for adventure was sown.
While caring for her grandmother – and looking after four orphaned donkeys, seven goats and a pet cow called Cleopatra – Rosie began exploring.
She began to go out on her bike and on her horse Columbine, encouraged by her grandmother.
“She encouraged me to have adventures,” said Rosie. “She was a lovely woman.”
When most people become an adult the wide-eyed thirst for adventure gets beaten down, but for Rosie it was the opposite.
Sailing across the Atlantic, ultra-marathons, becoming a mum and 3,000mile treks on horseback are just some of the adventures she’s had.
The stories have filled several books, as Rosie has written six about her adventures and is starting her seventh.
One of her greatest adventures, however, started on the back of tragedy.
In 2002 her second husband, Clive, died at the age of 73 of prostate cancer.
“He died in my arms,” she said. “The healthy and active people are at risk because they never go to the doctors.
“He had gone on a journey, so I had to go on a journey.” And what a journey it was. Rosie decided to run around the world (literally) to raise money for prostate cancer and an orphanage in Russia which provides children with education and care.
The aim was to run around the northern hemisphere, taking in as much land mass as possible, with just minimal supplies and sponsorship. She started from her Tenby home on her 57th birthday on October 2, 2003.
On August 25, 2008, almost half a decade later, she returned home.
She had run 19,900 miles, contracted severe frostbite, broken ribs and found she had stress fractures just 32 miles from home.
She said: “When I was 32 miles from home I was doing really well. I woke up and I couldn’t stand up. I was damned if I was going to stop that close to the end.”
Not to be beaten, she finished the last part of the journey on crutches.
She wrote about her experience in her book, Just a Little Run Around the World: 5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes, which was released in May 2009.
Rosie has just returned from another epic adventure where she has run, pulling a cart, across the United States
She is about to start her latest book about her American adventure and gave a little insight into some of the story.
She said: “I lived out in the open but from time to time I would get a motel. One day I met a guy who had a bit of a stomach ache.
“This man offered to cook for me. It was while he was giving me the food he told me he had been in jail for 30 years. I didn’t like to ask him what for!
“He had a wife and a son he was proud of – he had turned his life around.
“I am not a psychologist but he was telling me all this and I am just a silly old woman pulling cart.
“The way to fight all the terrible news around the world is understanding.”
When you speak to Rosie, you can’t but be struck by her relentless energy. Life is one big adventure for her.
“I am not a special athlete,” she said. “I was running across America pulling a cart. I did not know why I was doing it!
“I spoke to a man who was in prison for 30 years, I was invited to do public speaking and I slept out in the desert under the stars listening to the rattlesnakes.
“I am writing the book now. I will take my time. I want this to be my legacy.”
However, the book will have to wait a little.
Just before New Year’s eve, a puddle did what a pack of wolves could not, and left Rosie in hospital.
She said: “On December 28 it was a calm day after the storm and I went to get a pint of milk and bam! I fell in a puddle and broke my hip. I tried to get a taxi but I couldn’t move.
“I have been in the hospital and have seen the nurses working and man were they working hard on New Year’s Eve.”
This has had the dual effect of motivating Rosie to get back adventuring and leaving her wanting to do something to help the NHS she has come to admire over the last week.
She said: “You should see being old as a challenge – everyday is a real adventure. I sold my house in Wales – the kitchen needed doing and I am not interested in that.
“The next 10 years are important and I am full of energy.
“When my hip is better I want to do something for the NHS.
“The NHS is special. I don’t know what to do but I will do something.
“My MBE is for services to charity and it is my badge of honour.
“I am so happy I had my broken hip – I have never had this experience before.
“Look at the nurses here – they are always smiling.”
When asked if age would hold her back from her next adventure, Rosie just said: “I am proud to be 71 – I have just got a Parkrun personal best!”