A Stewartry woman is gearing up for a marathon challenge for a cause close to her heart.
Jan Campbell is tackling this year’s EMF Edinburgh Marathon to raise funds for Alzheimer Scotland.
Her dad Jock was diagnosed with dementia in 2014 aged 71 and now lives full-time at Merse House Care Home in Kirkcudbright.
Jan, who lives at Old Bridge of Urr just outside Castle Douglas, said: “The girls and guys that look after him have been so lovely. They all knew him from the past so they don’t see him as just an old man with dementia, they knew him from before, which is nice.
“There’s also quite a lot of local people who go in and out so they always give him a nod or a wave.
“He was a real driving force in his prime and worked as a mechanical engineer his whole life. He could do anything at all, he was so smart and astute with intellect and practicality.
“He was also so loving and kind and would often tell me how proud he was of me often. His pet name for me as a girl was Wee Lamb. He was the best father I could have ever had and now his memories have been lost to the point that he often won’t know I’m his daughter when visiting the care home, which is devastating.
“I have so many fond memories growing up. He loved to be outdoors in the garden and grew vegetables in the garden and I would often help out washing and cooking them for dinner. We’ve got our own vegetable patch now and the kids want to plant potatoes because they hear the stories of when I was little and had to go to the garden to dig up the potatoes for dinner, then wait for them to boil, then we’d mash them together.
“Despite his decline over the past few years he still has his happy smile and his jolly nature which we’re all so grateful for.”
This will be the fifth marathon the 41-year-old mother of two has tackled and the second time she has raised money for Alzheimer Scotland, having done so by taking part in the Stirling Marathon in 2017.
Her fundraising is her main motivation for her training and the recent bad weather hasn’t held the pharmaceutical business manager back.
She added: “The weather has been awful but I’m lucky that I’ve got a treadmill at home.
“The good thing about Edinburgh is it’s at the end of May so I didn’t have to start training until after Christmas time.”
To sponsor her visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jan-campbell5.
