About this Blog

October 19^th 2017 was a good news/bad news day. I received the great news that I had been accepted for a place on the London Marathon team for the Outward Bound Trust, and the not so great news that I was confirmed to have diabetes.

I had run the London Marathon before, back when I had turned 50, and wanted a glorious return to the run for 2018, the year I turn 60. So I had joined a gym and started running again from scratch, using the NHS ‘Couch to 5K’ programme.

The diagnosis of diabetes was a huge shock – not because I hadn’t suspected I had the disease, but because the confirmation was so emphatic that even I could not deny I was ill. Matters were made worse when I started having bad chest pains and was cautioned by specialists at my local chest clinic to stop all running in case I had a heart attack! While awaiting further tests to determine what was causing the pains I lost my marathon place.

I have since had quite a few tests of various sorts and now know that the chest pains were skeletal/muscular, resulting from slamming my chest on the sink during a bad fall in the bathroom. I also know that while I do have diabetes, I have so far acquired no serious physical damage from the disease and hope for a reversal of the disease over time. However, I cannot take things for granted. I am on twice-daily medication, I test my blood sugar level frequently every day and I have had to drastically change my diet and lifestyle.

I’ve now started swimming classes, commenced a weight-training programme and I continue to run. I have lost many kilos of weight since my initial diagnosis but have at least another 10 kilos to go in my bid to outrun diabetes. I had started running in order to complete the London Marathon, but I am now running for my life.

This is a blog about me running for my life, by which I don’t just mean the actual running, but also making sure I have a life worth living. I will talk about how I’m getting on with managing the diabetes, how I’m getting on with my fitness regime and also about what it means to me to be happy – so you can also expect me occasionally to talk about cinema, how it feels to turn 60 years of age, personal development and life coaching.

So this is my blog. I hope it is informative, I will try to make it entertaining and I hope it will help save YOUR life.