Newcastle Skin Clinic’s Nurse Luisa Runs for St Oswald’s Hospice
Our Award Winning Nurse and Skincare Expert Luisa recently embarked on her first ever run for St Oswald’s Hospice, a charity close to her heart and her chosen charity of the year. We caught up with her the day after the Vitality Half Marathon in London, she said:
“A friend signed me up just 5 weeks before the race took place, and because I’d already decided I was going to start raising money for St Oswald’s Hospice, I thought this would be a good place to start.”
Luisa recalls, “When I checked the training programme it actually advised starting training at least 12 weeks before, so I was a little worried, but I am not one to back out of anything! I thought I am relatively fit and on my feet all day, oh how wrong I was! I don’t really run for fun, but I guess it was something that was challenging for me and the main point was to raise money for charity, people tend to be more sympathetic when it’s something that takes you out of comfort zone and this certainly did.”
“I was taking every mile as it came, jog, walk, jog and I didn’t think I was doing too badly until mile nine came and my legs seized up! I found it hard to even walk, fortunately, my friend carried me through – by this point I was ‘high-fiving’ all the people along the route! There were people with boards with ‘power up” written on them. I literally felt like Super Mario and getting a burst of energy every time I got a high five or sweeties that the crowd were giving out, the music playing along the way, DJ’s and steel bands, the atmosphere definitely spurs you on.
Luisa’s reflects “By the twelfth mile mark I started to relax a bit, but still couldn’t walk. I was wishing I had done more training at this point, but as soon as you see the crowd again you get your energy back! When I saw the finish line I actually sprinted across it with a big smile on my face!”
“I managed it in just over three hours which is better than I expected having not ever run before.”
Luisa continued about her support for St Oswald’s: “My aim is to contribute more to charity this year and so I chose my local hospice St Oswald’s, who help children and adults with incurable conditions. I personally visited the hospice about 15 years ago as a student nurse. I think it is a good connection as I have nursed myself and hoping to return to the hospice as a volunteer also. So with this in mind, Newcastle Skin Clinic have decided to support them for 2020 by doing various fundraising activities. I have set a contribution target of £10k for the year, and we actually managed to raise over £1000 from the run alone.”
When Luisa was asked what advice she would give anyone who wanted to complete their first race, especially with the Great North Run coming up, she said: “Honestly, I’d have to say: Train for at least 12 weeks – not 5!! Have an Epsom salt bath 3 times week and use on the day of the race too. Oh, and make sure you stock up on magnesium spray. You’ll need it!”
Luisa and the Newcastle Skin Clinic have lots of fundraising ideas and activities coming up this year including an afternoon tea, quiz nights, and maybe even the Great North Run, all in aid of hitting her £10k sponsorship target.
To see how you can help support St Oswald’s Hospice too, visit the Get Involved page over on their website.