An Islander ran more than 300km in June to mark one year since her breast cancer diagnosis – raising over £3,500 for the charity that supported her throughout treatment.
Christa Roberts completed the challenge to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey, which has supported her since she was diagnosed with breast cancer last June.
She had aimed to run a total of 222km in June to mark the 222 holistic needs assessments that the charity delivered last year – but smashed her target, running a total of 333km across the month.
“I reached the target in just around two and a half weeks,” said Christa.
“I carried on, and I upped it. I was doing almost 10km a day, so I thought I could do another 100km, so I ended up doing another 111km.”
Alongside running each day, Christa continued to work full-time as usual and supported the filming of “Slap it on Jersey”, a skin cancer awareness campaign led by Public Health in tandem with Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey.
She also had to contend with heavy rainfall at the beginning of the month and a record-breaking heatwave towards the end of June.
“It was tough, started with torrential rain and gale force winds, and then obviously ended with the heat wave,” she said.
“I was running at 4am every day during the heat wave, and it was still 24 degrees one of the days.”
Christa explained that a family member had been diagnosed with cancer near the beginning of her challenge, which gave her an additional incentive to carry on and hammer home why she was raising funds in the first place.
“It’s been really difficult, but it just makes it even more worthwhile,” she said.
“I’m going to be taking my family member up to Macmillan as well. It’s kind of come full circle that I’ve used the charity, and now it’s my family as well, so it just makes it even more relevant why they need the money for the help that they provide to people”.
Christa added: “I ran in London as well, because I was away at the Albert Hall, so I got up and ran around the parks in London.
“It was quite poignant because I ran past the Royal Marsden, which is where I had my [cancer] treatment, so it was a bit full-circle again.”
Christa is aiming to complete more fundraisers for the charity throughout the year, likely including Macmillan’s cycle challenge, which she had to withdraw from last year due to her own cancer treatment.
She is also set to host a Macmillan Coffee Morning in September.
DONATE…
Christa’s fundraiser will be open for the rest of the year.
Donations can be made here.
