Anxiety, loneliness and running

Ep 4, S2 - Why Run? podcast - 19 December 2022

Trigger warning - please note there are references to suicide in this interview.

Jane is the founder of a running club in Manchester called Mile Shy. She started the club to encourage and support people who don’t exercise to have a go at running. The club has been phenomenally successful and is constantly expanding. It now includes five running groups, six walking groups, and has won awards for innovation, best coach and best club.  Jane also runs a group for people with disabilities – which includes mental health issues.

As you can tell, Jane is passionately committed to helping others to discover the benefits of running and walking. And this is because running has been such a vital part in her own mental health journey. For when Jane was younger, she experienced profound poverty, loneliness and depression. As a teenager She was homeless and lived on and off the streets for several years before being  hospitalised at 18 due to mental overload and exhaustion.

Jane is diagnosed with gerneralised anxiety which, today, still impacts on many aspects of her life. Yet while it can be exhausting and stressful, its also  - as you will discover - what has given her the drive and determination to achieve so much in her life.

‘At the Mile Shy Club, everyone receives a warm welcome and no one gets left behind.

Everyone gets a hug if they want one’ says Jane, ‘because there are many people who can go years without human warmth or connection’… as Jane knows too well from her own experience.