Runner profile: Sian

Hi everyone, I’m Sian and I’m your new committee member for the diversity and inclusion group for SCH.

I’ll be honest, when the post went out about needing someone to lead this group I was a little unsure if it was something I was up to so didn’t respond to the plea for a volunteer. Then a few days later another plea went out and I thought maybe my life experiences could help others in a positive way.

I’ve been running with the club for a number of years now and the support I’ve received whilst with the club, particularly off certain members of our great team, has been phenomenal.

So about me: I’ve always ran, even from a young age when I completed my first race - the killer mile in Mow cop as a member of “Tolleys Trotters,” as the head teacher of our primary school which was based not far from the route, was named Mr Tolley.

From then I developed my love of running and continued this through high school until now at the young age of…well I’ll leave you to guess that one.

Over the years, I’ve had a few life experiences which I hope will help others by telling my story, not just as a runner but in other ways in your personal life also.

I’m a senior nursing sister at the Royal Stoke hospital, working in a busy trauma unit on the intensive care. As you can imagine, the last few years have been particularly stressful with the covid 19 pandemic, add with this a few other factors and my mental health severely deteriorated.

It’s no secret with my friends and family that I became extremely unwell and required hospital admission for my mental health. Following 3 weeks as an inpatient, I managed with the love and support from my friends and family, to overcome some of my trauma and get to a better place both mentally and physically.

I’m so thankful for running following this time, and 8 months later I managed to complete my 5th marathon in Manchester 2021. Forward to these last few months and my running has taken a huge dip and I’ve not really been down to the club much this year. However, I have always had the support from the friends I’ve made there over the last few years from SCH and that support continues following my latest health issue.

In July this year (2022), I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), which affects the central nervous system. Without going into all the detail, it has basically affected my running and left me struggling to even walk at some points. Things have gotten slightly better in the fact that I can now just about run 5k, but with that comes extreme fatigue, dizziness and foot drop, causing my foot to scrape on the floor when I get tired.

I guess there have been a few things that have affected me mentally since diagnosis in the fact that one day I could wake up and not be able to walk being the main thing for me to get my head around, but I’ve been massively impacted by the fact that I’m struggling to run. To go from marathon runner to struggling with 5K and the after effects really makes me, well sad.

However without the support I’ve had from a few SCH running friends then I would have already given up running. So all of the above has spurred me onto getting more involved with the club, hence excitedly taking up the new role of diversity and inclusion committee member/officer. When I couldn’t walk let alone run, I scouted around for available clubs to keep active with as part of a disabled athlete. I was extremely disappointed I couldn’t find a single club within the area that catered for particularly female people with disabilities.

Hence the sharing of my story really. To promote that we as a club are disabled friendly, and want to include people from a variety of backgrounds regardless of ability, race, religion, gender and sexuality to name a few. I want to make us inclusive to everyone.

Already we have held our first diversity and inclusion meeting as part of the newly formed 2022/2023 group and hope to transpire some of our ideas over next year.

If anyone has any ideas to improve inclusion that you want to try and include then please get in touch. I think I can speak for us all in saying we want to make a positive difference to both current and new members.

In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to say that my door is always open to any club member, we can all play our part in supporting everyone to make our club the best at being inclusive to everyone.

I look forward to 2023, even if I have to watch most of you from the sidelines. Take care Sian