Flora London Marathon 2009 − the place for London Marathon runners to share tips, stories, videos and other fun stuff

Elaine Mitchell ran for The Stroke Association

This week we got a lovely email from Elaine Mitchell - an experienced runner and charity fundraiser who’s more than doubled her target for The Stroke Association:

“Hi, this year’s Great North Run was fantastic! Great atmosphere, great organisation, great spirit, great fun, great weather (although a little warm) - a fantastic day, and most important of all, loads of money raised for all the good causes!!! Well done everyone!!!”

Such an enthusiastic email deserved a follow-up, so we got in touch to ask Elaine why she’d chosen to run for The Stroke Association. She told us this very powerful story.

How did you decide to run this year’s Great North Run?

I ran last year’s race and thoroughly enjoyed it. I decided as soon as I had finished that race that I wanted to do it again and also to try and beat my personal best.

How did you choose to fundraise for The Stroke Association?

I was originally going to do this race for fun, then back in July one of my work collegues had a stroke in the office. He was in hospital for about six weeks or more and I decided that I wanted to help in some way, therefore decided that I would do this run to raise money to help victims of stroke, who need the help of The Stroke Association for support and invaluable information for both the victim and their friends and family.

Can you tell us a bit more about your colleague’s experience?

My collegue’s experience was very sudden. He had driven to work in the morning and felt fine. Once he got to work he leaned forward to switch on his PC and said he felt/heard a ‘pop’ in his head.

He then felt sick and disorientated, he tried to get up to go to the bathroom but could not stand. Some collegues of mine helped him to the gents, his situation was deteriorating and one of my collegues called an ambulance. By this time his face had drooped on the left side and he could not speak without slurring badly and could not use his right arm and still could not stand. He was however protesting that he did not want to go to hospital and he would be alright soon and thought it was just an ear infection.

I gave a collegue his wife’s phone number and we called to let her know her husband was ill. I then waited for the ambulance on the main road so that I could direct them into our premises as quickly as possible and show them where the patient was located. They assessed him on the premises and then did some tests in the ambulance and decided he needed to go to hospital. One of our directors went with him.

Once at hospital the staff checked him over and the doctor said that he thought he had an inner ear infection, however there was a consultant nearby and she apparently overheard and took a  look at my collegue and said she thought he could have had a stroke, which both myself and my other collegue had thought too (I’d seen the advertising campaign showing the symptoms).

The consultant suggested an MRI scan. This was arranged for that afternoon and it was indeed discovered that he had a stroke. It has been said that he will make a full recovery, however it is proving to be very slow progress.

He has physio everyday to teach him to walk again. In the main his speech has come back but he has trouble with his memory and tends to forget if he has told us something or not. He also has to concentrate extensively on his usage of his left arm, this still tends to just do what it likes. He remains positive and is trying to get back to full strength as soon as he can. Currently he is still unable to come back to work and it is nearly three months since the stroke happened.

We wish your colleague all the best for a full recovery.

A half marathon is quite an undertaking - had you run that distance before? How was it?

Yes I have run this distance twice before. The first time was better than I thought it would be. The second time I struggled and found the race very hard and was outside my best by just over three minutes.

This time the race was great, I really enjoyed it and found it easier than I thought I was going to, despite it being a bit to warm for my liking. The atmosphere is fantastic.

What was your Great North Run highlight?

Acheiving a personal best of 1 hour 46 minutes… knocking four minutes and 54 seconds off my previous best.

Had you ever run/fundraised for charity before?

Yes - I have done the ‘Help a London Child‘ Capital Radio 10k back in 2004. I then did the Great South Run in 2005 for Bliss, and the Great North Run last year for Asthma. Then this year I did the Great North Run for Stroke Association.

How did you find using JustGiving?

JustGiving is great as it allows people that live a long way from me to still be able to support me in my choosen charity. It also saves the hassle of collecting the money after the event, and ensures that the person puts their address in full to allow the Gift Aid to be collected too.

What’s your top training/fundraising tip for other JustGivers?

Gradually build up the training a bit at a time. Aim to do your longest run two weeks before the race. Make it almost the same distance as you are running, if not the actual distance. This will give you confidence for race day that you can make it to the finish.

As for a fundraising tip - make sure everyone knows who your charity is and why you need their money to help that charity. If you have a personal story for doing it for a particular charity, tell your friends and family and they will be sure to sponsor you. If like me it was for a friend in particular, give them a form as well and they can get all their friends and family to sponsor you too… That is what I did and this helped to double my original fundraising target.

Well done everyone who completed this run - don’t make it your last! I will be back next year for the 30th Great North Run.

And we wish you well with both the running and the fundraising Elaine - keep up the great work!

You can find lots more tried and tested tips from JustGiving fundraisers here.

Tags: elaine mitchell, Fundraiser tips of the day, Stroke Association

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009. Interviews category