An Enham woman will run the London Marathon in October despite only taking up running during lockdown.

Ella Williams will be running the 26.2 mile race after starting running during the pandemic to try and improve her mental health. She is attempting to raise £2,000 for the charity Mind as she does so.

“I decided I would start running to better my mental health whilst we’re in lockdown,” she told the Advertiser. “My friend said he would be running the London marathon so I decided to do it even though I’ve had no experience in running prior to this. It’s been quite a journey!”

Ella said she had “struggled” with her mental health since she was a teenager, and that lockdown forced her to get into running after gyms closed.

“I find that when I go to the gym the atmosphere and shared experience really helps me the most with my mental health, so not being able to have that, I really had to force myself to go out running,” she said. “It has been quite weird, especially when we went into lockdown in December I didn’t really like working out at home, I found it quite claustrophobic.

“The weather was awful too, it’s been cold and rainy, so it’s been a test for my mental health but I think it has also helped me get into the marathon mindset.”

Ella will be running on behalf of Mind at the marathon, and she says the charity has helped her develop her running skills.

She said: “I’ve joined a Mind group chat on Facebook where we all talk about our techniques and we also have a personal trainer who has been helping us and updating us on what we need to be doing.

She has also had help from her friends who like running, as well as doing her own research.

“I had to ask them for advice but I also did a lot of research myself on running techniques and things like that,” she said. “When I started going to the gym I had no idea what I was doing so I used to do my own research and I’ve been on YouTube watching loads of people.”

Ella is currently training by running from Enham to Charlton and doing laps of the village before running around Anton Lakes and back home. She is also planning on doing a few half-marathons before the event, as well as running the London course at least once.

If you’d like to donate to Ella’s fundraiser, please follow this link: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EllaWilliams14