Fiona, a barber from Leeds, sadly lost her father and brother to mental health related issues. This year, to increase awareness for men’s health, she ran a wacky and epic marathon in France with three of her besties, calling themselves ‘The Medoc’s Wonder Women 2023’.
Hanging with Caroline, Kath and Sofia, the idea started off as a bit of a drunken ‘great idea’ to run a marathon (none of us being runners, let alone marathon athletes) in honour of Caroline, also known as ‘Chicken’, turning 50.
Sober, the morning after, “what did I agree to?!” soon changed into “why the bloody hell NOT?” as we are four strong willed, determined and possibly a bit mad, women. All with kids, horses, careers, etc.
But which marathon?! THERE COULD ONLY EVER BE ONE CHOICE...the infamous Marathon du Medoc - the one with wine, cheese, steak, oysters and ice cream, at 22 stations over the 26 miles.
Rain, shine, work commitments, family and social lives were juggled while we trained hard. It's been a slog!
Then on September 2nd 2023, with 8,500 others, we ran through the beautiful vineyards of Bordeaux, in pure sunshine, whilst wearing fancy dress.
We did this for the men in our lives: our husbands, boyfriends, dads, stepdads, brothers, cousins, colleagues, friends...in fact YOU! Or certainly someone you know.
It was an amazing experience. We enjoyed it so much and raised over double our fundraising target!
Running is not my thing, but we pushed hard, had a laugh, soaked up the sun, the atmosphere along with a little wine and some strange food stops along the way...something we'll never forget.
A marathon completed with a big thank you to all our amazing friends who supported us and helped us raise money for the amazing Movember!
We chose Movember as our charity of choice, and in particular to raise awareness of men’s mental health, as it is something that has touched each one of our lives in some form. 13 men a day on average take their own life in the UK. This needs to change.