Jane with her medal from a previous Cardiff Half Marathon
Jane with her medal from a previous Cardiff Half Marathon

A 69-year-old Cwmbran woman is running her sixth Cardiff Half Marathon this weekend to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Jane Horne, a former teacher at Fairwater Comprehensive School, started to exercise to improve her health.

You can sponsor her here.

Jane told Cwmbran Life: “I started off because I was quite ill and had an operation. After I had it, the consultant said I needed to start walking.”

She cares for her husband, who has multiple sclerosis, and started to exercise when carers visited her home.

“I took to going out walking when the carers came in for my husband. On one walk I decided to run a little bit. I started to run a little, then run a little bit more. The seed grew and I thought ‘I could do something with this’.

“I was just out walking and it grew from that.”

She likes to raise money for good causes and in previous years has supported The Salvation Army and an MS charity. For one run, her sponsorship supported the Salvation Army’s work in Ukraine.

This time she has chosen to run for the Alzheimer’s Society after it affected her 92-year-old father before he died.

“I am running for those of my friends, and family, whose lives have been, and are, greatly affected as a result of dementia.

“I’ve raised £1,000 so far. The atmosphere is brilliant. My name is on my number, and people call my name out. I love that. When you read some of the reasons why people do it, people are so emotional about it.”

Visit Jane’s JustGiving page to sponsor her.