A Chester charity leader completed the GB Ultras 100-mile endurance ultramarathon race to raise funds for a lifesaving defibrillator.
Sara Crosland, who founded The Beyond Recovery Project in 2023, is a brain tumour survivor and set up the charity to help fellow survivors recover.
Ms Crosland said: “I was diagnosed with a low-grade brain tumour in February 2018, and that’s quite a long story short.”
“I had surgery in May 2018, which I thought would sort of be the end of that chapter, but I realised at that point that was just sort of the very start of it, and recovery is… a long journey.”
Following her surgery, Ms Crosland suffered from single-sided deafness after her hearing and balance nerve was severed.
This led to her having to learn to balance and walk again, as well as coordination, vision and memory issues.
However, Ms Crosland became increasingly frustrated with the recovery process.
She said: “I think often in the case of low-grade brain tumours where they’re removed, because they’re not sort of deemed to be so much of a threat as higher-grade tumours, you’re very much sort of discharged and told to go on, live your life.”
“And I just felt like there was nowhere to go with that, really.
“In addition to that, I was quite an active person before my surgery, and I wanted to get back to that.”
So, Ms Crosland launched the charity, which has since grown from strength to strength.
The Beyond Recovery Project takes brain tumour survivors on walks across the UK, long-distance races, and expeditions up mountains such as Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa.
Ms Crosland said: “I wanted to create an environment that was supportive of people, whether they were active beforehand or not, as it’s very much outdoor-based.
“We just try to sort of harness the healing power of nature and get people outdoors with other people who are on the same journey.”
Ms Crosland’s work enabled her to complete the Chester Ultra 100-mile race on April 19th.
She said: “I’ve done races previously, and I’m never going to podium in any of them, but I just like the taking part and the atmosphere.
“But I had a good first half, which I completed two hours faster than the 50 miler that I’d done in February.
“But then it all sort of went a bit to crap in the second half, it is just down to digging deep, but I did have a bit of a meltdown, and I was like, oh god, why me? This would have been so much easier if I hadn’t had a brain tumour.”
However, Ms Crosland credited her friend, who paced her throughout the second half, with helping her complete the race.
Ms Crosland said: “She did say, look, you wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t had that brain tumour, because I never used to do stuff like this before that.
“She did have a point, and so I sucked it up and carried on.
“It’s actually given me a new lease of life sort of thing, where you actually wouldn’t have been here had you not gone through it.”
To get involved with The Beyond Recovery project, visit www.thebeyondrecoveryproject.org or email [email protected].
