Tell us about you? I live in
Gloucester with my partner and I am the main carer for my Mum who lives within
a few miles in her own bungalow. She has
Lewy Body Dementia with Parkinson’s, so I see her every evening and have a
network who assist me in keeping her living at home. We often go out walking together at weekends
and in her 80’s she can still climb to the talk about most of the local hills
and beacons.
What is your professional background and where do you
work I currently work
for Gloucestershire Care Services in the Complex Care at Home team. I qualified as a Mental Health Nurse in 1991
and have worked for 2gether NHS Foundation Trust for the majority of my career. I set up the Prison Mental Health team and
worked at HMP Gloucester for 10 years. Following the closure of the prison I
started working with the Safeguarding team for 2gether with both Adults and
Children before taking up my first post with GCS in the Multi Agency Safeguarding
Hub prior to moving to my current role.
Tell us about your role and how active you are at work I am mostly out in the community
treating patients with complex needs, which gives me variety and allows me to
be as active as I can. My role is
supporting adults with a
range of complex health conditions, by providing resilience and independence to
enable them to be supported and stay at home.
How did you hear about health and Hustle I heard about the
H8H group through a friend at work and I have joined their running groups when
time allows. I took part as part of the
team in the CCG marathon relay, where I ran my fastest mile in 6.5 minutes. Alongside this I have been part of team H8H at
the Cheltenham Challenge and in my first year I was the ladies runner up in the
5KM race. Health & Hustle are a
friendly group of people welcoming you into any event and being supportive and
fun at the same time.
What activities do you do after work Alongside my daily
wood walks, I started to increase my exercise and decided to start
running. I used the couch to 5K music
pod but didn’t stick to this in any true form; however it was a useful tool in
maintaining my motivation. It took me a
few weeks to run my first mile which felt like a huge milestone and a real
achievement. It was then that I gained a running buddy Kelly, who lives locally
and together we run around Hucclecote several times a week, within a few months
we were running 5 miles. Together we
have entered mud runs and charity runs along with taking part in relays where
we ran a distance of 20 miles each. I
bought a road bike and cycle most weekends. I ride between 30-50 miles and in the
May I cycled 75 miles across the Severn Bridge.
What advice could you give to someone who has experienced
the same sort of lifestyle challenges you have had to make 8 years ago I
truly would never have believed I would be capable of running or cycling long
distances. Giving up smoking has been
the single most important factor in my story and maintaining my health has been
down to replacing my addiction with a new one –exercise!!
What are your key active goals for the future to remain
fit and healthy I run and cycle
with my friends and it feels good and is tremendous fun. I have huge amounts of stamina and rarely get
unwell. I manage the many stressors in
my life far easier now that I can engage in regular activity running, cycling,
yoga and circuits and continue to use activity to stay healthy
"Thanks Kath for sharing your story with
Health & Hustle"