Giving back, getting fit!

Meet the three women whose fitness routines are motivated by altruism...

'Breast cancer changed my altitude to sport'

Executive director Jackie Scully, 42, from Greenwich, is celebrating 10 years cancer-free

'I remember watching a marathon in my 20s and thinking, "Why would anyone want to do that?". I'd done very little sport since school and, having had my pelvis rebuilt at 25 (due to hip dysplasia), I was still learning how to walk again. Running wasn't even on my radar - and I couldn't imagine how anyone would find it fun. I was someone whose focus was on climbing the career ladder, but the truth was that I was rushing through life so fast, I never stopped long enough to actually enjoy it.

It took a shock diagnosis with breast cancer, when I was 32, to change that.

Having my right breast removed and rebuilt was humbling, and the support I received from charities, such as Breast Cancer Now and the Willow Foundation, was so kind and generous, I wanted to do anything I could to raise money and awareness for them. 

I was still going through chemo when I signed up for my first-ever 10k race. It took me 30 minutes longer than the average for a woman of my age. But! loved the experience and pledged to raise £100,000 doing further challenges over the next 10 years.

My long-term partner, Duncan, had proposed just three weeks before my diagnosis, and we decided to celebrate my recovery by gifting our 2017 wedding to charity - marrying on the Cutty Sark, London, at 7.20am, then heading over to the starting line for the London Marathon. My friend, the former Dancing On Ice professional skater Frankie Seaman, made me a dress I could run in, and my dad, Eamonn, then 64, ran alongside me as father of the bride. For our honeymoon, Duncan and I spent five days trekking 50km of the Great Wall of China. Between them, our wedding events raised more than £30,000.