“The Hackney Half will be my biggest challenge yet”

This weekend at the Hackney Half Marathon Craig will be taking on one of his biggest challenges by running to raise money for St Mungo’s.

Craig, 37, lives in a St Mungo’s project in West London but before that had been sleeping on the streets since he was 17. He finally moved into supported housing in 2014 and started to think about his health, his work and his future.

Craig has diabetes and has spent most of his life using a walking stick. His health has improved dramatically since he has started running and he no longer uses a stick, taking part in his local parkrun.

“It was my health worker who put me onto parkrun. If you asked me before the New Year if I was going to run, I’d say: you’re mad! I never did any (running) before, I couldn’t even run for the bus – because I had a walking stick, because I had a leg problem”.

“I’ve been told if my diabetes keeps improving in the same way it is now, I could be free of diabetes in the next 12 months, which means I’d still have the symptoms, but it won’t be affecting my health. And I’ve changed all my diet now, I’m keeping healthy. It’s because I’m keeping busy, walking…I’m maybe even thinking of not renewing my freedom pass so I’m not reliant on it”.

“Hopefully in the next couple of years I am going to set up my own business teaching computers”.

Craig has plans to set-up his own business within the next couple of years teaching people basic computer skills. He has passed a few courses online and is getting help setting this up from a very supportive network at the library where he volunteers.

The Hackney Half Marathon will be his biggest challenge yet and he is predicting a time of 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Go Craig!

To sponsor Craig visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/craig-chapman16