Fundraising Fed rep training for marathon

19 November 2024

‘I’ve gone from a mum running to the bus stop to a police officer running marathons’.

It’s November, and Hertfordshire Police Federation’s full-time equality lead, Sergeant Terasa Holden, has just been for a training run around the nearby lake. In just a few months, she will be running the London Marathon, raising money for VICTA.

VICTA is a national charity that supports children who are blind or partially sighted - a cause close to Terasa’s heart after she, herself, was born blind.

“I was born blind - my optic nerves hadn’t grown properly,” recalled Terasa, 53, who explained that at the age of one-and-a-half, her eyesight started to develop.

Sergeant Terasa Holden at the Chicago Marathon.

“My grandad saw me following a tissue with my eyes one day - it was then that my family realised I had started to see. My eyesight has improved over time, and I feel lucky about that. I know it could have been very different.”

One of the main aims of VICTA is to take blind or partially sighted children out on day trips, which Terasa says ‘is priceless to them’.

“It gives these kids a chance to be kids again and just enjoy life, as kids should. Plus, it gives the parents - who are often caring for them round-the-clock - a break, too,” said Terasa, a mum of three and grandmother of two.

Chicago Marathon

For Terasa, running marathons is not anything new. She has previously completed the New York Marathon, Chicago Marathon, Berlin Marathon and the London Marathon. Each time, she raises money for charity, whether that’s VICTA or the Nicola Hughes Memorial Fund.

Although Terasa admits running has not always come naturally to her.

Rewinding back more than 20 years, she said: “I’d split up from my partner and was a single parent. I wanted to lose weight, but I couldn’t afford the gym, so I started running to and from the bus stop to drop my kids off for the school bus.

“I was running about two miles at the time. It’s strange to think I’ve gone from running to the bus stop to running marathons.”

Fundraising

Terasa recently started to practice the ‘run-walk-run-walk’ method, which she says has ‘changed her life’.

“My entire approach to running has changed now. I ran to raise money before, but I run now because I love it. I put my trainers on and go out on a run because I want to," she explained.

“And I want to show others that they can do it, too. People say they can’t do it, but they can. If I can run marathons - with my arthritic knees and having been born blind - anyone can.”

Support Terasa and help reach her fundraising target of £1500 by donating today via her online fundraising page.