Fundraiser ends her three-month British Isles run in Jersey

Fundraiser ends her three-month British Isles run in Jersey

Raising money for Longfield Hospice in Gloucestershire and Parkinson’s UK, Faith Addison finished her three-month journey from Shetland to Jersey by running a 45-mile coastal-path circuit of the Island, beginning at 7 am outside the Grand Jersey hotel and finishing back at the Grand ‘well after dark’.

‘It was seriously windy and seriously cold and seriously wet,’ she said. ‘But now I have got to my 1,700 miles and have done my loop of Jersey, covering the southernmost settlement of the British Isles. I started in the most northern settlement in the British Isles, and so that’s me now, done and dusted.’

Ms Addison, a UK-based locum pharmacist who occasionally works shifts in Jersey, began her challenge on 1 September and has run a total of 1,700 miles, the equivalent of 65 marathons, between then and now.

Commenting on her reasons for undertaking the challenge, Ms Addison said that a desire to raise funds in recognition of her godfather, who is a Parkinson’s sufferer and is being looked after by the Longfield Hospice, led to her going back to running after a long break. ‘I used to be addicted to running and I got into ultra-running, so I’ve done things like 50-mile races, and would definitely have said I was a runner. Then I cycled back from New Zealand [as part of a 30-month world cycling tour], and didn’t touch cycling or running for at least a year and a half. I just became a workaholic, but then I thought I would like to do something for my godfather.’

She carried her camping gear on her back throughout the journey, which began on the island of Unst, north of Shetland, and took her all the way south following the UK’s network of running trails, before finally crossing the Channel to end in Jersey.

At each stage, she tried to meet up with local runners and experienced many warm welcomes throughout the UK. But Jersey, she said, ‘put out the largest number of runners’.

She was joined on almost every leg of the round-Jersey run.

‘I didn’t manage to find anyone for the north coast, though – I wonder why!’ she added, describing the conditions on the coastal paths there as a ‘real slog’.

However, despite carrying a shin injury throughout most of the challenge, which will now force her to take ‘a few months off’ from running, Ms Addison was straight back to work on Monday morning, at the Queen’s Road Pharmacy.

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