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John Speirs marathon of runs for his wife and for FMA UK

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Category: General Information

Published on Tuesday, 14 November 2017 16:55

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John Speirs is running a series of marathons and runs to support FMA UK work and to raise awareness of fibromyalgia because his wife, Lynn, lives with fibromyalgia. John told us: ‘’So I’ve decided to run a marathon at the grand old age of 42. Why? Very simple, to help raise awareness of Fibromyalgia and hopefully raise some much needed money. My wife Lynn was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia about 6 years ago. Since then she has got progressively worse and she is now in constant pain.

5 years ago after the birth of our daughter my wife was really struggling with pain and eventually had to stop working. Every day is a challenge for her and its made all the more difficult as I am in the RAF therefore live 200 miles away on weekdays. Not to mention being deployed overseas frequently for months at a time (8 in the last 23). Nobody can see my wife’s illness, its invisible. Unfortunately the NHS answer to her illness is anti depressants, sleeping tablets and codeine based (addictive) painkillers. These are not an option for someone looking after a child therefore they were rejected!

She was referred to physio.......the response from the physio was that they couldn’t do anything for her. We spent money that we could ill afford on a private specialist in the hope of some progress....again nothing. It seems that nobody actually knows how to treat a Fibromyalgia sufferer.

It breaks my heart when Lynn can’t join in with swimming, cycling, running, jumping and pretty much every physical activity that our daughter enjoys. I see my wife’s sadness and frustration at sitting on the sidelines, so to speak. All the above led me to the point of thinking that I need to try and raise awareness. I decided that running would be a good method so I’ve embarked on a journey. Run the Edinburgh Marathon for FMAUK. I have paid my own entry fee as I didn’t want FMAUK using valuable funds paying my entry fee in return for an agreed sponsorship amount. I want everything I raise to go directly to FMAUK. If you have read my story and could possibly donate £1 via my just giving page I would be very grateful. 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-speirs4

The story isn’t quite over, separately I am also going to attempt to run the good for age qualifying time at the Edinburgh Marathon. If I complete it in under 3hrs 15mins I should gain automatic entry into the London Marathon. This is an enormous challenge for me but every time I’m in pain and struggling I will think about how hard just walking can be for Fibromyalgia sufferers. I would love to represent FMAUK at the London Marathon.

Today I ran the Morun 10k in Glasgow and I was wearing my FMAUK running vest. In 2 weeks time I’m running a half marathon in Strathclyde Park and the following week a 5k in Cumbernauld. More awareness raised hopefully! I self-fund all my entry fees and travel costs. Thanks for reading my story and there is another on my just giving page as well as training and race updates. Please support me and FMAUK. Every donation no matter how small really is greatly appreciated’’.

To sponsor John please visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-speirs4