Our fundraising hero's '60 at 60'!

When Fiona found out that the London Marathon 2020 was to be 5 days after her 60th birthday, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to complete her first marathon and give hope and encouragement others living with Crohn's or Colitis. After the postponement of the event, Fiona needed a new challenge so she decided to run 60km throughout her birthday week, 10km per day for 6 days.

As if that wasn't enough, Fiona embarked on a "Strava Art" project and designed her route to spell out the word "SIXTY". We love hearing stories like this wanted to share Fiona's fantastic achievement with you, as well as her artwork! You can continue to follow her journey on Twitter.

Here's why she did it:

Having lived with the disease for many years, all medical treatment options were exhausted in 2015 and I took the major and, as it turned out, life changing decision to have a Panproctocolectomy operation. Prior to this, at the age of 52 I started running a little bit, but the disease curtailed my efforts more and more until I became almost housebound. Running became impossible, with even completing a 5k being a fantasy. However, since the operation I am a new person; off my medication and seeing my running go from strength to strength.

My daughter, Rebecca, ran the Brighton Marathon for Crohn's and Colitis UK, inspired by the change she saw in me. I went from being virtually housebound and in constant pain to being healthy and active, and she so wishes that other people can have hope that one day a cure will be found without necessitating major surgery.

I have another brother with Crohn's as well and it is a constant worry that other members of the family will be diagnosed, and so it is vitally important to me that we do what we can to help find the cause and cure of these diseases.