Cat

Image: Cat, running with her daughter in Kingswood.

I’m Cat, mum of two children aged 3 and 14, one with autism. I’ve never been into fitness and exercise, though I’ve always loved to go for long walks. After I had my daughter, I decided I’d had enough of being overweight and wanted to get fit, so I took up running with the Couch to 5k app. I loved it. I could get out and about and I got a running buggy so I could take my daughter with me.

We’ve had many adventures together, including running on the Bath cycle path pushing my daughter in the buggy. Now my daughter is getting too heavy for the running buggy, so sometimes we go out for a little jog in the park together.

During the pandemic it was really hard. I’m a keyworker working in a large supermarket. When we’ve been short staffed, I worked lots of extra hours to help out. I put my own health and fitness on the back burner to concentrate on the kids and work. With my mental health struggles really affecting me, I decided I had to look after me and make the time to get out for a run, so I tend to run on my shorter days at work while she is still in nursery.