A St Albans woman is tackling the London Marathon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
Emily Hickey-Mason, 25, will run the marathon on Sunday, April 28 to fund life-saving research into heart and circulatory diseases.
She was inspired to run the race partly due to her job as a media officer for the British Heart Foundation (BHF), and partly because two of her grandparents suffered serious strokes and her father lives with atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat).
Emily grew up in St Albans and used to be part of St Albans Athletics Club in Verulamium, but gave up sports after sustaining a serious injury, only taking up running again a year and a half ago.
She said: “Running was a huge passion of mine throughout my childhood and teen years. However at the age of 16 I became injured and was advised by orthopaedic consultants that I needed to completely avoid all sports to aid my recovery.
“After six years of having a sedentary lifestyle, I started to build my strength up and I got back into running.
“Last year I was able to compete in the Birmingham Half Marathon and the Richmond Half Marathon before deciding that I wanted to go for gold and do the London Marathon.”
Emily aims to raise £2,000 for the charity, which helps people living with conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and vascular dementia. These conditions affect around 12,500 people in St Albans.
One in four deaths in the UK each year are caused by heart and circulatory diseases, with around 300 people dying from these conditions in St Albans alone.
Emily has already raised £300 towards her funding target. She said: “I’m incredibly grateful for any donations towards my run and this truly fantastic cause. “
BHF London Marathon organiser Karen McDonnell said: “Heart and circulatory diseases, like heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia, affect millions of people across the UK.
“We are hugely grateful to all of our fantastic marathon runners this year who have pledged to raise thousands of pounds to help the British Heart Foundation fund life-saving research.”
To sponsor Emily go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/emily-hickey-mason
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here