The Marathon and me
Guest Post by Vicki Parry, running the London Marathon for the Pelvic Partnership in 2019
On the 28th April I’m running 26.2 miles around London (with quite a few other people). It will be the culmination of months of training: running in the rain, wind, mud, sand, ice and dark (and sometimes sunshine…). I’m doing this to raise money for a really amazing charity that helped me (and thousands of other women) when I was in pain and unable to walk, let alone run.
In my pregnancies I had a condition called Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP), where my pelvis stopped functioning properly. This meant I couldn’t walk and I was in constant pain, I used a wheelchair and crutches to move around and needed help with simple day to day jobs. It made being pregnant and then mothering a baby (and second time round, a baby and a toddler!) very challenging. For someone that had been active I found this physically and emotionally challenging. I had imagined my life with a baby being long walks with a baby carrier; instead I was housebound and in pain.
I contacted a charity called The Pelvic Partnership and the volunteers there helped me understand the condition and guided me in accessing the right treatment. They literally got me back on my feet.
The Pelvic Partnership is a group of amazing volunteers who give up their free time to give women, their families and healthcare professionals information about PGP. The volunteers who run it juggle their families and jobs and give their free time to support women with PGP, answering telephone helpline enquiries, providing information on their website and in their information booklets and campaigning to improve care and treatment for women with PGP.
PGP is a condition which affects the function of the pelvis – if the joints don’t function properly it causes a lot of pain and loss of mobility. It is very common in pregnancy and can continue for months, even years afterwards, but sadly women are often given outdated information and struggle to access the treatment they need. It’s a condition that can be very isolating, not only because they often cannot walk because of the condition, but also as it is so often misunderstood. Who can see the pain anyone is in?
It’s been a long, slow and painful recovery to get to a point where the only barrier to running a marathon is the training I put in, but I wouldn’t have reached this stage without the Pelvic Partnership. Please donate what you can so they can continue to help women back onto their feet!
To donate, please visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?pageId=1011333#
