From loathing to spreading the love
Tamara Lewis, 37, from Oxfordshire
‘I’m now a personal trainer and spend virtually every day running with my clients, while also making time to run by myself. I often tell clients who aren’t keen on running how I absolutely hated it when I was at school, but have now totally changed that attitude.
I was at an all-girls boarding school because my parents were based abroad. It wasn’t that I wasn’t sporty; I really enjoyed team sports such as netball. I didn’t even mind sprinting because I knew it would be over in a few seconds – unlike cross-country. It was a pushy school, so they made you try your best at everything and you had to do crosscountry runs whatever the weather and however you were feeling. I would try all the excuses to get out of it, but with no mum around to write me a note, it was almost impossible. When I tried using the excuse of it being my time of the month, they would say I used that excuse last week.
As soon as I left school, I stopped running completely, happy to think that I would never have to do it again.
In my early twenties, I started suffering badly with anxiety, at one point ending up in hospital trying to deal with it. I was looking for anything that might help and decided to try running. I was apprehensive as I had hated it so much at school, but I’d read about how it can have a positive effect on anxiety, so I tried it and realised that it helped to keep me calmer. Then I was running three or four times a week – and I’ve done so ever since.
When I run on my own, I tend not to have any distractions such as headphones. Instead, I listen to my breathing and go through all the
things in my head while taking in the fresh air. When I get back home, I feel absolutely great; it sets me up for the rest of the day.
After seeing how much it helped me, I was keen to become a personal trainer and help others, too. The story about how much I loathed running at school really resonates with some of my clients as they had very similar experiences.
In the past two years, I’ve also used running to fundraise for a charity close to my heart. My six-year-old nephew, Dominic, has Dravet syndrome [a severe form of epilepsy], which is a neurological, drug-resistant condition. For a time during lockdown, he was in hospital critical care and I felt helpless as we couldn’t visit my family. I really wanted to help, so one day after returning from a run, I told my husband Mike I was going to get as many people as possible to run 5km every day during May to support Dravet Syndrome UK. It was an incredible effort from all the adults and kids who took part, including our own three children. It was a massive success – we raised £45,000 in 2021 – so we did it again this year.
Running now plays a huge part in my life, both running with my clients and running to manage my anxiety. I’ve realised from my own experiences that even something you hated in the past can eventually be something that you come to love.’
‘You can come to love something you hated in the past’
To find out more about Dominic’s lifelong condition, visit Dravet Syndrome UK’s site at dravet.org.uk