'I tried to take my own life, then ran the coast of Britain'

"I don't just enjoy running, I absolutely love it, and when I'm not running, I miss it so much," says Megan Boxall.

Back in May, the 33-year-old, from Thorpeness, in Suffolk, conquered the last of 200 marathons over 204 days, raising more than £72,000 for Samaritans.

The financial journalist, who was born in Hertfordshire, became the quickest woman to run Britain's coastline, covering 5,240 miles (8,433km).

Many would consider completing a challenge of this magnitude impressive enough, but Megan did it after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).

She crossed the final finish line in Sizewell with her dog Shadow to rapturous applause. But what possessed her to embark on such an audacious journey?

"My uncle walked the coastline when I was 10 and so from that age it was in my mind that I'd like to do something similar in my life," she said.

"I never had a reason to do it until the end of 2024."

That reason came in the form of a "serious setback" with her mental health, which culminated in her attempting to take her own life.

But, after coming out the other side of what Megan described as being an "awful and horrific" period, she set about using "positivity as an antidote to poor mental health".

"I came to live here at the start of 2025 and it just came to me on the run that now was my time to run around the coastline of Britain," she said.

"I knew my life needed a serious change, because it couldn't really get any worse and I was feeling so much better for being here on the coastline.

"So, I thought, 'What if I run the whole thing and celebrate as much of the coastline as I can and raise awareness of positivity?' That became my reason why."

According to Mind, the mental health charity, one in four people experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England.

"If I can help other people, it means going through what I did was worthwhile, because it gives that awful time a purpose," Megan said.

Megan received her MS diagnosis two years ago and she is one of more than 150,000 people with the condition in the UK, according to the MS Trust.

The NHS states on its website that MS is a lifelong autoimmune condition which affects the brain and spinal cord and cannot currently be cured, but that treatment can often help manage it.

It adds that "most people with MS live into old age although life expectancy, on average, is a few years less than the general population".

Megan has what is known as relapse-remitting MS, meaning she has flare-ups of certain symptoms before they eventually go away or get better.

She has lost vision in one of her eyes on two occasions, which she said was "horrible", before it returned, and has temporarily lost sensation in her hands and feet.

Megan is currently receiving treatment for MS, but in future it may be that her movement becomes more impacted and parts of her muscles start to waste away.

"At the moment, it doesn't affect me that much," she said. "It certainly doesn't affect me day to day.

"But I do want to do more things to try to show that MS really doesn't have to be limiting. It can impact you, but it doesn't have to.

"So, in London next year, I'm going to try to break the world record for the fastest marathon run by women with MS."

Over the course of her journey around the coastline, Megan ran through places including Clacton, Blackpool, Dundee and Newcastle.

She completed her challenge 97 days quicker than Elise Downing, who became the first woman to run around the coast in 2016.

As well as using the run as a platform from which to "celebrate Britain", Megan has also utilised it to raise tens of thousands of pounds for Samaritans, the suicide prevention charity.

"When I set the £50,000 fundraising target, I thought I'd either smash it or I'd fall way short, so I'm so pleased to have been able to raise so much," she said.

"The whole thing has been amazing and nothing but incredibly positive. There were so many strangers who were involved in some way.

"I feel like I've seen the absolute best of people and of Britain, and it's been amazing to see how much people want to help and be involved in stuff."

Megan's efforts have led to her being nominated as a finalist in the BBC Make A Difference Awards, which celebrate people who go above and beyond in the community.

She said she was "really, really surprised" when she found out she had been shortlisted in the fundraiser category.

"It is exciting and so lovely to be nominated," she said.

"It's not like I don't feel like I deserve it, because I know this project was my project and I know I've given an awful lot to it.

"But it's been so much bigger than me."

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