A real benchmark: Fundraiser Viv is vision of health

But this month she is celebrating after completing the Simplyhealth Great Birmingham Run in an incredible two hours and 14 minutes.

Viv also raised more than £2,000 for Sandwell’s Warley Woods at the same time.

To top it all off she managed to shed four stone thanks to her half marathon efforts.

Viv, aged 51, is the trust manager for the Woods in Smethwick.

She said wanted to complete the run so she should could raise money to replace some of the old, rotting benches at the park.

“Back in January I was a non-runner. But I had started losing weight last October and wanted to do something to keep me running," said Viv.

“So the half marathon seemed like something just possible, but also something that would keep me really working hard.

“My goal was to run through all of it, and not stop, which I did. I actually cried as I went over the finish line, it wasn’t anything I thought I could do.”

Chuffed

It was a wet, and windy day for all participants on the day of the half marathon, October 14, but Viv said for her ‘the sun was shining at the end’.

“I just thought, as I was in my fifties, if I didn’t take control of my health now then I felt there could be problems around the corner,” she said.

“And I just feel so chuffed that I made that decision and did it.

“I’ve even booked a few more 10Kms for the next few months. I’m definitely going to keep going with the running.”

Viv, who lives in Stourport with her husband Mark and her pet cats, raised £2,776 for Warley Woods.

The money will allow the trust to buy three new benches at £850 each.

The benches feature memorial plaques and are sentimental to the families who place them there.

Viv said the arrival of new, sturdy benches, would mean the plaques could be re-attached to the new benches and stay there for years to come.

Warley Woods is a 100-acre, Green Flag award-winning community park managed through a community trust.