Surrey equine nurse gallops towards London Marathon challenge

Caitlin Fahy, who is part of the equine nursing team at Liphook Equine Hospital, is taking part in the famous 26.2mile (42.2km) race on 26th April after entering the public ballot. Despite a record-breaking 1.13 million people from across the world applying, she was allocated one of the 15,000 available places.

She will be running to raise money for the Joanna Wildlife Hospital in Bramley, which rescues and rehabilitates sick and injured wildlife.

Caitlin, 24, from Guildford, is fitting her training around her busy role as a nurse at Liphook Equine Hospital, which is one of the largest equine veterinary hospitals in the south and is part of VetPartners, a veterinary group which owns some of the UK and Europe’s leading veterinary practices and associated businesses.

The horse lover and keen rider admits she wasn’t a runner before entering the ballot but was inspired to put her name forward after watching last year’s marathon.

Caitlin said: “The London Marathon has such an incredible atmosphere and I thought it would be amazing to be part of it, so I applied. The odds of being accepted are extremely low, so it was a complete shock to receive an email telling me I’d been successful. At that point, the most running I’d done was trotting the horses up at work and often that would leave me out of breath!

“To get started I used the Couch to 5k app, which was really helpful, and once I’d built up my stamina and strength I joined the She Strides Run Club, which has running groups for women around Surrey and Hampshire. Sadly, I’ve suffered a few injuries and setbacks along the way and the longest run I’ve done so far is 12km, but I’m hoping I can build on this in the run-up to the marathon.

“I don’t have a set time that I’m aiming for and all I want to do is enjoy the experience and make it to The Mall to cross the finish line, no matter what the clock says.”

Through running the marathon, Caitlin is hoping to raise £1,500 for the Joanna Wildlife Hospital, which she says is an organisation very close to her heart.

Caitlin added: “If you are awarded a place through the public ballot, it’s not compulsory to fundraise, but I thought that if I’m going to run the marathon, I might as well support a good cause at the same time.

“As a veterinary nurse, animals are at the very heart of what I do, and the Joanna Wildlife Hospital is such a great organisation and does brilliant work to help and protect our wildlife. It’s near the farm where my mum and I keep our horses, and we have often taken injured buzzards and kestrels to them. After nursing them back to health, they’ve brought them back to the farm to release them. Any money I raise will make a huge difference to them.”

Anyone wishing to support Caitlin, can donate here.