Heart To Heart Scotland | A Scottish Charitable Trust | Helping improve the lives of babies abandoned in Romania

Sue's Support

Like many, I was keen to support Maggy & Lesley in their work for Romania. I also realised that whilst I could donate myself, it would be much more beneficial to create a vehicle for others to donate and at the same time raising awareness of the Trust.

My first idea was to swim 1 mile (64 lengths) of our local 25 metre pool) and attract sponsors. This I did and raised in excess of £500.

Then the next major challenge - probably of my life – was to take up running. Like many, despite being reasonably fit from swimming I could not run past two lamp-posts without stopping. However, I struggled on with my first goal, the Women’s 10k in Glasgow in May 2004. The sport grew on me and before long I found myself deep in the programme of a marathon, committed to run in October 2005 at the Amsterdam marathon.

I was fortunate that I was able to cast my net much further and many people supported me; in training, gaining sponsors and worst for them listening to my running tales and still asking how I was getting on next time I saw them!

This was a remarkable experience for me, a huge learning curve and through others £1,000 was raised for Heart to Heart Scotland. Sponsorship does drag you over those difficult spells when you want to “chuck it” as you cannot let all those people down. And, I don’t just mean the people who sponsored me, my running friends – who kept me going on those long training runs, and family who realised there was competition over the biggest portions of food and had to put up with my new dietary demands – all for the better, I might add.

The only downside is, I am still running, enjoying all the new places I visit and new friends I make on the way. Oh and what a healthier person I am especially as I head towards those vintage years.