'Running has changed my life' - fundraisers on their marathon motivation

More than 6,000 runners are preparing to race through the historic city of York and its surrounding villages as part of the Yorkshire Marathon Festival.

The 26.2 mile (42km) course takes in sights including the 7th Century York Minster and 1066 Viking battleground at Stamford Bridge.

Each has their own reasons for taking part in Sunday's race, whether trying to set a personal best or raise money for a cause close to their heart.

Among them will be Ellie Freer, who is aiming to complete the route just over a year after undergoing heart surgery.

The operation, to patch up a hole in her heart, followed seven years of uncertainty after she collapsed aged 25.

"My left arm and my left side went completely numb," Ellie, now 33, recalls, adding that she temporarily lost her vision and had a "really bad headache".

The audiologist was rushed to hospital from her home in Herefordshire, before undergoing numerous tests and scans.

"Nobody could find anything wrong at all," she says.

"I was thinking 'maybe it is actually me - maybe I am the problem'."

Eventually, a neurologist told her it was "all in [her] head - there's absolutely nothing wrong with you", she says.

Despite this, her eyesight was permanently changed, and she has worn glasses ever since.

After moving to Scarborough, Ellie collapsed three more times, before a junior doctor in the town's hospital referred her to a stroke team in York.

There it was confirmed she had been suffering from transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs), also known as 'mini strokes'.

"I broke down in that consultation room. I finally had an answer," Ellie says.

She was then referred to a cardiology team, who carried out an ECG scan of her heart.

"It showed that I had a massive hole in my heart and that was the cause of everything. Why they didn't do that in Herefordshire I don't know."

Wye Valley NHS Trust, which runs Hereford County Hospital, declined to comment.

"I've been told that if I'd left it any longer, I would have been at risk of having a full stroke," Ellie adds.

Ellie joined the Run Scarborough club in 2024 and says returning after her operation was "emotional".

"It was Christmastime so we had to dress up in fancy dress in Scarborough," she says.

"When I got back I just cried."

Ellie ran her first half-marathon in March and her second, the Great North Run, in September, but Sunday will be her first full marathon.

Ellie said: "Running has changed my life.

"Because I've had issues with food in the past, I know that if I want to run, I have to eat, so it's helped with my eating disorder. But also it's the people."

She is raising money for the Stroke Association UK, hoping that "if I can be brave and share my story, and there's somebody going through what I've been through, they may think to seek more help, to go see somebody, to get more answers and hopefully get a diagnosis sooner".

For Eleanor Midgley, from Sheffield, it is not the first time taking on a marathon but will be the last, she says.

She is running in memory of her daughter Molly Midgley-Hellend, who died in January 2024, a year after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma.

"We've done everything in our power to try and raise funds so the next person who comes along after Molly, there's some research that can help them," Eleanor, 53, says.

She is taking on the marathon just days before what would have been Molly's 30th birthday on 22 October.

"I would love to be arranging a big daft party for her at the moment," Eleanor says.

"She would have been the first up there going wild."

Since Molly began a fundraising drive shortly after her diagnosis, £170,000 has been donated.

On Sunday, Team Molly is raising money for the Weston Park Cancer Charity in Sheffield.

Eleanor says: "I've been a nurse for nearly 40 years and I've seen how much research can support improvement in cancer treatment."

A team of 12 runners and 28 supporters are part of the team on Sunday, Eleanor says.

"It's a huge privilege and like Molly said herself - it's like a huge hug. That's how it still feels for the family and everybody who loved Molly."

Alex Hill, from Leeds, will take on the route without his right kidney, after it was removed nine months ago.

It had not functioned fully since he was a baby, with regular hospital trips until the age of 14.

"About five years ago, I started getting mild back pain in my right side and I put two and two together and thought 'maybe this is something to do with my kidney'," he said.

"So I went back to hospital and I had various scans. It was concluded that my right kidney had deteriorated."

He spent a year on a waiting list before undergoing the operation.

"Everyday tasks like sitting down, or getting out of bed, or laughing was excruciatingly painful. I was pretty much immobile for the first couple of weeks."

But Alex was "determined" to "get back out there", returning to running a couple of months after surgery.

The Yorkshire Marathon provided a "focal point" for his training, he says.

Having trained through the summer and completed 19 miles in August, he is "feeling ok" but is expecting Sunday to be "painful".

But, Alex says, he will "give it my best shot" to raise money for Kidney Research UK.

"I've been able to have this surgery, I've come out the other side and I can now run a marathon.

"But there's people out there on dialysis waiting for transplants with other kidney health related issues who really aren't as fortunate as me."

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