Teacher from Jersey tackles London Marathon for Stroke Association

Saturday 22 April 2017

A 24-year-old teacher from Jersey will be one of 1,000s of runners on the start line of the 37th London Marathon tomorrow morning.

Rachel le Selleur, who is a complete novice when it comes to running, decided to tackle the infamous 26-mile race to raise money for the Stroke Association in memory of her maternal grandfather.

She told Express: "My grandfather died in 2009. He had had a stroke in 2004 and it left him quite disabled. I saw how it affected him as well as my grandmother who cared for him. They went to the Stroke Association and got information from the volunteers, especially advice on how my grandmother could help him. I was inspired to run the marathon after my cousin ran it last year and I decided to do it for the Stroke Association in memory of my granddad."

Born and raised in the Island - she is a former student of Jersey College for Girls - Rachel left Jersey seven years ago to study at Winchester University. She is now a primary teacher there but comes back frequently to the rock to visit family and friends. She was in Jersey earlier this week to gather some much needed support before the big day. A marathon is undoubtedly challenging for any runner but it is especially so for someone who only started running six months ago.  

Rachel explains: "I am not a runner. I didn't run at all before training for the marathon. I only started running in October when I knew that my application had been successful. I followed the plan that is on the Marathon website and it went pretty well. I enjoyed it, I will probably keep on doing shorter runs but maybe not long distance ones."

On top of her training, Rachel has also been raising funds for the Stroke Association. Her Crowdfunding page currently stands at £2,270.00, just a little over her £2,000 target but she is hoping to have more by the end of the race.

"People have been very generous especially in Jersey. My mum has been fundraising on the Island and hopefully when we get everything together, I will have £3,000 to give to the association. Cancer charities get a lot of money but people don't necessarily realise that strokes affect as many people. I am proud to raise awareness for them." 

Aside from her fundraising efforts, Rachel also set a personal goal for the race and is feeling rather optimistic ahead of the race. "I am not really nervous about the actual race, I feel quite excited and also extremely happy that I got a spot, when people try for years and never get one.I am hoping to finish under four and a half hours, but to be honest I would be happy just to finish it."