Maria’s Story
Maria Johnson is running the Great Manchester Run for St Ann's
Bringing up three young children is hard enough so training for the Great Manchester Run as well means Maria Johnson is always in a hurry.
Add her job as a community nurse and there is not much room left in the day for Maria who still finds time to raise funds for St Ann’s Hospice.
Maria, from Eccles, is hoping to complete the 10k run on Sunday, May 19, in under an hour as part of Team St Ann’s, a 60-strong group supporting the charity’s ‘Sixty in 60’ campaign.
Maria, and brother Patrick Walsh, are running in memory their mum Christina Walsh who died of cancer seven years ago, aged 49.
Christina was an inpatient at the Little Hulton hospice and died in her own home, supported by the charity’s specialist Hospice@Home team.
The care was amazing and as a nurse I could see that the help given to mum and the family was invaluable. My brother saw a poster on Instagram about the charity's involvement in the Run and talked me into it. I'm not sure I'll do it in 60 minutes but I'll give it a go. Maria Johnson , Mum to Eva (5), Emily (3) and Thomas (1)
The pair have already raised £4,000 for St Ann’s by cycling from Manchester to Blackpool. Maria will tackle the bike challenge for a fifth time this year.
Dad Patrick is also a regular in the Manchester Midnight Walk and will be undertaking the 10k walk again on Friday, April 26. To sponsor Maria go to justgiving.com/fundraising/mariaj10k
Free places in the ‘Sixty in 60’ team are sold out but runners can register for their own place on the Great Run website and choose to support St Ann’s Hospice as their charity of choice. The hospice will then send out a supporters pack.
For more information contact the St Ann’s Events Team on events@sah.org.uk or call 0161 498 2096.