Inhalers get Colchester woman running for charity (From Essex County Standard)

Inhalers get Colchester woman running for charity

4:10pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Local news By Clare Jeffs

STEPH Horner is in training to take on a challenge she would have considered impossible until last year.

Diagnosed as asthmatic in her teens, the only exercise she’d taken was in games at school.

However, thanks to modern medicines, Mrs Horner, 41, now finds herself gearing up to run her first London Marathon.

Mrs Horner, a dental nurse, who lives in the New Town area of Colchester, said: “I had had hayfever as a child, and that gave way to asthma.

“It was almost as though I grew out of hayfever and into asthma.”

After a particularly serious asthma attack, aged 15, she gave up most activities which might have triggered another incident.

She said: “I was really inactive from that moment. I didn’t take part in sporting events, and I piled on quite a bit of weight.”

Eventually, she visited an asthma nurse, who got her trying a range of inhalers until she found one which suited her best.

It brought about an amazing transformation and with her breathing much improved, last year she tackled the Colchester Half-Marathon, completing the course in 2hrs 16mins.

After that, she says, the London Marathon was the next obvious choice.

When she runs on April 22, she will be doing so in aid of for Asthma UK, which works to improve the health of 5.4 million people across the country living with the condition.

Her aim is to raise at least £1,600. Thanks to patients and workmates at Creffield Lodge Dental Surgery, Creffield Road, Colchester, she already has more than £1,000 pledged.

She is grateful, too, for the support of her husband, Darren, and Colchester running buddies Ruth Baldwin, who is running the Edinburgh Marathon in May, and Sally Baldwin.

To support Steph Horner’s London Marathon run, visit www.justgiving.com/Stephanie- Horner1