Lifestyle Archives | Life with Scoliosis

2.6 Challenge: Week 4 – COMPLETE!

Posted on May 23, 2020May 23, 2020 by Louise

I'm so happy! This week I completed my 2.6 challenge! I'm so proud of myself. I started the 2.6 challenge on Sunday 26th April, to raise awareness and funds for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund. Like many charities, the Scoliosis Campaign Fund has been affected by the cancellation of fundraising events due to COVID19. The 2.6 challenge was launched to save the UK’s charities, and the idea is that people can do any challenge associated with the numbers 2 and/or 6. As...Read More

My 2.6 Challenge: Week 3

Posted on May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 by Louise

I’ve just finished week THREE of my 2.6 Challenge, so I wanted to write a quick blog post to document my runs over the past week. I started the 2.6 challenge on Sunday 26th April, in a bid to raise awareness and funds for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund. Like many charities, the Scoliosis Campaign Fund has been affected by the cancellation of fundraising events due to COVID19. The 2.6 challenge was launched to save the UK’s charities, and the idea is that people...Read More

My 2.6 Challenge: Week 2

Posted on May 10, 2020May 17, 2020 by Louise

I've just finished week 2 of my 2.6 Challenge so thought I'd write a blog post to document my runs over the past week. I started the 2.6 challenge on Sunday 26th April, in a bid to raise awareness and funds for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund. Like many charities, the Scoliosis Campaign Fund been affected by the cancellation of fundraising events due to COVID19. The 2.6 challenge was launched to save the UK's charities, and the idea is that people...Read More

Hello May!

Posted on May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 by Louise

We are now in week 6 of lockdown in the UK and so April was not what you'd call a "normal" month! To start off May right, I thought i'd reflect a bit on April and also what I hope to achieve in May, aswell as how I'm feeling right now in the midst of the pandemic, For this post, I'm joining in with the May Link Party on A Chronic Voice and thought I'd use this months prompts for...Read More

My 2.6 Challenge: Week One

Posted on April 28, 2020May 17, 2020 by Louise

This week, on Sunday 26th April, I started my 2.6 challenge, to raise vital funds and awareness of the Scoliosis Campaign Fund. If you are not aware of the 2.6 challenge, basically it is an initiative launched by the organisers of the London Marathon to save the UK's charities. As part of this challenge, I'll be running 2.6 miles, every day, for 26 consecutive days. This week so far, I have ran every day - in rain or shine! Running...Read More

2.6 Challenge and Machu Picchu Trek: UPDATE!

Posted on April 24, 2020April 28, 2020 by Louise

This year marks 10 years since I had life-changing surgery on my spine to correct severe scoliosis. To raise money for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund I was planning on running Manchester Marathon in April this year, as well as completing a charity trek to Machu Picchu in October. As a result of the Coronavirus, the Manchester Marathon has been postponed, although I completed all the training including a 20 mile run just before lockdown! My Machu Picchu trek WILL be...Read More

April 2020 Link Up with A Chronic Voice: Lockdown Life!

Posted on April 19, 2020May 6, 2020 by Louise

April 2020 Link Up with A Chronic Voice: Lockdown Life! This month, I thought I'd take part in the April 2020 Linkup Party for people with chronic illnesses, over at A Chronic Voice. The link parties are a monthly get together for anyone with a chronic illness/condition. It's been a funny old month, what with the Coronavirus pandemic forcing the UK into a complete lockdown. So in light of this, I thought I'd use the prompts this month to get...Read More

Lockdown Diaries: Week 3

Posted on April 13, 2020April 18, 2020 by Louise

We have just finished week 3 in lockdown, so I thought I'd document some of the highlights of what I got up to, so I can remember years from now. Plus, writing is therapeutic to me and helps me to cope during a pretty unnerving time. During lockdown, I'm lucky enough to be able to work from, which I do in the daytime Monday - Friday. So most of my activities below I do in the evening after work -...Read More

Lockdown Diaries: Weeks 1-2

Posted on April 8, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

As we enter week 3 of "Lockdown" in the UK, I thought I would write down my thoughts as it helps with my anxiety and stress, but also I thought it might be interesting to look back on years from now. So this post may be a bit jumbled and there may not be much point to it, but I just needed to get all my thoughts down somewhere. At the moment we have had two full weeks of lockdown,...Read More

5 ways to look after your mental health during lock-down

Posted on April 3, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

We are coming to the end of the first two weeks in lock-down in the UK and honestly, at times it can be hard. I know that other people have it worse than me. I know that key workers are having to go into work whilst I can work safely from home. I know that millions are home schooling their children, whilst attempting to work full time, whilst I don't have kids. I know I'm probably one of the lucky...Read More

Hello April

Posted on April 1, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

Well, March, what a strange month you've been!!! At the beginning of the month, I was in the midst (and extreme pain!) of marathon training ready for the Manchester Marathon, which was meant to happen this weekend. On the 7th of March, it was my birthday, and I celebrated with my run club friends with a trip to Zielgelwiese parkrun in Germany to get the Z in our parkrun alphabet challenge. That feels like A LONG time ago now and...Read More

5 positives we can take from lock-down

Posted on March 28, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

It's a scary and difficult time for us all at the moment amidst the Coronavirus outbreak. The UK is now in lock-down. As of 23rd March, we can only leave the house for essential supermarket visits or to exercise. If we go outside, we need to stay 2m away from others and we are not allowed to meet friends or family. This is something I don't think any of us ever imagined would happen in our lifetimes and it felt...Read More

Sigh…Corona

Posted on March 21, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

There's not really much purpose to this post, other than the fact that I needed to get my thoughts down. It's been a difficult and scary time for everyone amidst the Corona-virus outbreak and at the moment, I feel like I'm in a film that I'm not particularly enjoying. Everything just seems highly surreal. Last week, I was upset that the marathon I had trained for months for, had been postponed. This week, I feel that there are bigger things...Read More

My 2020 Challenges: Manchester Marathon & Machu Picchu

Posted on February 5, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

This year marks 10 years since I had life-changing surgery on my spine to correct my scoliosis. I had scoliosis surgery on July 29th 2010. I’m fused T3 to L3, which basically means that pretty much my whole spine is fused apart from 3 discs at the bottom. Following my surgery, it took me over a year to fully recover and I had to learn the basics again such as walking and getting out of bed. It was a very painful...Read More

My 2020 Goals

Posted on January 8, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

Happy New Year all! I wanted to reflect back on my 2019 goals and share where I'm at for 2020 (wow!) I'm really proud of everything I achieved in 2019, I managed to run four half marathons, including the Great North Run, which was definitely a highlight of the year. In one of those I got a PB of 2.02, so although I didn't achieve my goal of sub 2, I was pretty close and very proud of that. In...Read More