Mary Ashcroft

I'm taking part in the Great North Run 2025 as part of #TeamStroke

As I reach my 60th birthday in August and retirement from 38 years of teaching, this year I am working hard at my running and am challenging myself by taking part in several races.

February saw me completing the Lavenham 10k old railway trail run - a muddy run involving some paddling- and  I also completed my second ever marathon distance, a lapped event in Brandon Country Park with a PB of 37 minutes off my previous run there! On a beautiful Spring day in March, I completed the Cambridge half marathon with my fastest every chip timed half marathon time.  These events were part of my training plan for my first ever road marathon race, the Brighton Marathon, on April 6th.

I'm also planning to participate in two half marathons in September - Ipswich Half, my local event and the Great North Run. In October, I'm off to Portsmouth to take part in the Great South Run, a ten mile event, which will take my total race distance over 100 miles for 2025. There may even be more events in 2025!

I rarely seek sponsorship for my run events but I have joined #TeamStroke for the Great North Run 2025 and hope that people will feel able to support me. I am choosing this charity to support as strokes have had a very significant impact on members of my family and also on friends.

There are over 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK, with 100,000 strokes happening in the UK each year. That's one stroke every five minutes.

The Stroke Association is here to support people to rebuild their lives after stroke. They believe everyone deserves to live the best life they can after stroke, so they work with the stroke community to make sure people affected by stroke get the very best care and support. They rely on your support to provide vital services, campaign for better stroke care and fund research into preventative and rehabilitative treatments.