Evenwood’s Marie Chamberlain was told by doctors she may never be able to run after the cause of her chronic back pain was unmasked as degenerative disc disease.
But the 30-year-old has become a fixture at Evenwood Road Runners after a physio at the back clinic said something which struck a chord.
Ms Chamberlain said: “She said the only person stopping me doing what I wanted was myself and there was no reason I could not do it.
“It was like a light bulb coming on above your head in cartoons – I thought ‘she is right’.”
The supermarket worker got talking to Road Runners veteran Kenny Sams and joined the club in May.
Since then she has completed the Durham City 5K, the Auckland Castle five mile and the Leeds Abbey Dash among several others.
“It just grew from there,” she added.
“The first couple of times I was thinking ‘what have I done?’ but it only took a couple of weeks for me to realise I was not relying on painkillers as much.”
Ms Chamberlain has lived with back pain for the best part of two decades.
Doctors had put her initial symptoms down to growing pains but the stabbing ache persisted into adulthood and led to her taking strong painkillers round the clock.
She finally got an MRI scan after having her second child, Isabelle, five years ago and the degenerative disc condition was uncovered.
A second scan at the beginning of last year also revealed she was suffering from arthritis in her lower spine.
“Looking back, I was very active in secondary school – the more active I got, the less it seemed to hurt,” added Ms Chamberlain.
“Once I finished secondary school I went back to not being very active and it started to get really bad.”
The arthritis diagnosis pushed her into physio and helped trigger her move into running.
Seven months on, she has booked a spot at the Edinburgh Half Marathon in May and has eyes on a full 26.2 mile effort in Kielder in 2019.
She added: “If I did one, I’d want to do one of the bigger ones like London or Manchester but I would love to do Kielder.
“Fair enough, 26.2 miles is a long way but if you’re going to do it, you want to do it in a lovely place because that must take some of your mind off it.”
Evenwood Road Runners celebrated their 2017 achievements last week at a presentation evening at the village working men’s club.
Ms Chamberlain paid tribute to her club colleagues for all they’d done to help her.
“It’s a big family and I have never met a friendlier bunch of people,” she added.
“The fast runners all give you a piece of advice – every single one of them has got time for you.
“If it was not for Kenny, I wouldn't have joined.”
And she handed on a piece of advice for those in a similar position.
“Just give it a go,” she said.
“The only person stopping you is yourself and that’s stuck with me.”
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