jogscotland Westhill member, Tina Mackay decided to join the Repper brothers in raising money for the Brain Tumour charity in November 2017. The Brain Tumour Charity is the UK's largest dedicated brain tumour charity, committed to fighting brain tumours on all fronts and making a difference every day to the lives of people with a brain tumour and their families. This is a charity close to her heart as her son has a brain tumour.
Tina said “I had never run before Jan but used to go along to the Baker Hughes 10k and cheer the people on who were running for this charity, so I signed up for the BHGE10k having never done any serious running before. My friend Karen and I tried doing the Couch to 5km (C25K) with the app but didn’t do very well! Then we noticed that jogscotland Westhill were advertising a C25K programme so at the beginning of January we joined. It was the best thing we could have done.”
“After the first week, on a cold wintry night, I could have never have imagined that we would be able to run 5k without stopping at the end of our 10-week programme!! But I did. In doing the C25K I have met a great bunch of people; the jog leaders are really supportive, and the experienced runners were super encouraging. Running in a group makes all the difference, our little group of C25K have become good friends and you get your own personal cheering squad. We supported one another through those long runs with lots of discussions about Gin and Prosecco as well as going to Parkruns and completing the Garioch 5k together.”
“Running with jogscotland Westhill, you're also more likely to explore new routes, which definitely make your runs more interesting and you get lots of hill training. You are also more likely to stick to your training, it’s harder not to show up when you know that your teammates are, there was no way I would have gone out in the sleet and rain on my own!”
“Personally, running with jogscotland Westhill has had major health benefits. I have lost 2 stone; my blood pressure is better, and my MS symptoms are much improved.”
After couch to 5k, then on to 10k for charity what’s next for Tina, she says possibly the Westhill 10k, then the Glasgow Great Scottish run.
