Nick Brown (club chairman).

I am delighted to announce that Sue Rae and James Graham are kindly taking on the newly created post of First Aid Officers within Hastings Runners. Sue won an Achiever’s Award for her outstanding running performances in 2019, and has also recently joined our coaching set up. James is an experienced marathon runner and will be well known to parkrun afficionados as Hastings parkrun’s barefoot runner.

They have already arranged for a defib/first aid training course at Horntye (mainly for coaches) on 18th March (all places now taken), with a further course to follow in the summer. They are also planning to stage an injury prevention seminar (again at Horntye) in May (details to follow shortly). Please see biog details below:

Sue Rae

I am pleased to introduce myself as one of the first aid officers of the club.

For the last 35 years I have worked as a GP where I have not had any formal first aid training but believe my role as a clinician provides me with the skills to undertake the role. In the past I have been first aider for a local youth football team when my boys were playing. With running, the main issues relate to injury and also, importantly, to resuscitation. It is important that as many of us as possible have the skills to deal with such an event whilst hoping that they are not required.

My running experience is much more limited than my clinical experience. I am new to it, I was a sprinter at school, never running more than 400m! After school it was not something I ever really wanted to do. However, I was persuaded to come along to a Wednesday morning run one sunny day nearly 3 years ago and I haven’t looked back. A lot of hard work on my fitness, diet and running has brought me considerable success in the last year particularly. I have long been an advocate of the benefits of exercise for both physical and mental health, sometimes sounding like a broken record I’m sure, and hope that I am now setting a good example as to what can be achieved at any age.

James Graham

So I am James, I have been running since 2014 due to a life changing experience. I am a barefoot runner, at end of 2019 I had totalled 15 marathons. I am a first aider at work, trained to use AEDs, Oxygen & Anaphylaxis pens.

Regards, Barefoot James