I thought I’d never walk again, but now I’m running marathons

Just two decades earlier, I’d been stuck in a bed unable to move. Yet now here I was, aged 60, and about to complete my first ever marathon.

I owed this moment to so many people – my incredible running friends from my local parkrun and family – but also to myself. 

Even after doctors said I’d be on medication for life, I never gave up. Instead, I found what works for me and I can truly say that running and a whole food plant-based diet has given me my life back. 

The trouble started in 2003 at the age of 42 when, after what appeared to be a simple backache, my joints became inflamed. I had never felt such intense pain.

Dosed up to the eyeballs with painkillers and anti-inflammatory tablets, I ended up in bed for weeks just trying to sleep my life away. I managed to see a GP, but my blood test puzzlingly came back negative for rheumatoid arthritis, which was my initial suspicion because my mum suffered from it.

It would be another 10 years until I’d be diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2013 – an autoimmune condition whereby the body attacks itself, specifically joints and tendons.

I was initially to have a name to put to all the weird things that were happening to my body. 

But it also came with the resignation that life would never be the same.

I knew how horrible this disease could be as I had witnessed my mum’s daily battles with it.

She ended up in a wheelchair because her joints became degraded over the years, while her hands and feet in particular became twisted and extremely painful. Now it appeared that I might have a similar fate.

I began receiving steroid injections immediately and started taking an immunosuppressant drug called methotrexate, which needs careful monitoring with monthly blood tests. 

After a year of this, I was a lot better. But after sadly being made redundant, I would still get occasional painful flare-ups.

A few months later, a rheumatology nurse via the NHS suggested I try an elimination diet in case I had a food intolerance that could be making the arthritis worse. That’s when I realised that red meat, bacon, cheese, and eggs did indeed seem to inflame my joints. 

So I chose to become an ethical vegan. The switch in my diet definitely helped and flare-ups were less frequent, but now I had a new goal in mind: I wanted to cut down my meds.

Supported by my GP, I tried to do this twice – once in 2005 and another time in 2014 – but my flare-ups became more frequent. I even very nearly lost the sight in my right eye from iritis – an inflammation in the iris, which is linked to arthritis.

By 2016, I was so fed up with feeling unfit that I – quite suddenly – decided to try and jog with my dogs along the beach where I live. I didn’t own running shoes but I reasoned that the sand was soft so I’d be fine.

All my tendons and muscles felt wrong as I set off, and despite having done no real exercise for the past 13 years, I managed about 30 metres, but sort of half-hopping and walking. 

I was shattered afterwards, but elated. I carried on the next day, and the next – each time getting a little stronger, until I found I had run the whole 30 metres. It felt empowering to make such progress.

I carried on, going a few steps further each day until I managed to ‘run’ a whole mile. It was amazing.

Then completely by chance, I met a fellow vegan and runner who – as it turned out – had suffered with rheumatoid arthritis for 10 years. She told me how she follows a whole food vegan diet and runs marathons.

For a whole month, I went on a whole food, plant-based diet, with no oil – which is important for me specifically – before cutting out one of my four tablets. Each one is 2.5mg.

Every four weeks, I dropped another pill until I was down to one tablet. After that, I cut it in quarters before dropping a quarter every couple of weeks.

I was afraid I would experience flare-ups or lose my eyesight, but that didn’t happen.

Then in February 2018 – after 14 years since my diagnosis – no more methotrexate. And I felt nothing! No flare-ups, no joint pain. Nothing.

I only got more involved from there – helping to set up parkrun events and making friends for life – until it was a regular part of my Saturday routine.

Very gradually, I started extending the distance from 5km parkruns to much longer. It was just incredible that I could run at all, so I was so excited to see just how much I could improve.

Then when my friend randomly suggested I train for a marathon, I thought it was crazy.

I had bought into the idea that running is bad for your knees, so I was wary that I might cause them damage. I would never have even contemplated running a marathon in my 20s – let alone at nearly 60.

But then I just thought, ‘How will I know what I can achieve if I don’t even try?’ So I started training like crazy. 

On the day of the event last year, I was incredibly nervous but my friend and daughter were there to support me. As I approached the finish line, they were so relieved to see that I was still smiling and laughing.

My legs were so tired, but I had proved I could do it.

Then this year, I ran the Paris and Norfolk Marathons – both in April. I cannot express just how much of a huge personal achievement that is for me.

Paris was emotional; the atmosphere, people cheering, beautiful buildings and parks made it the experience of a lifetime. Meanwhile, Norfolk was a trial by hills, torrential rain and freezing wind – I cried with relief at the end of that one.

Now aged 61, I want to stay fit and active long into my old age – maybe even get faster and run further because there was a time where I never thought this would be possible.

Yes, the first step is always the hardest, but no matter your age, the important thing is to take it.

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