Joseph Ryan immediately caught our attention when we noticed that in his registration form, under the interesting stories’ section, he wrote: “I run with arthritis and was told I’d never be able to do a run like this!”
It sparked our interest and we reached out to him to get more details and with the hopes of sharing his inspiring story to our running community. We knew that Joseph must have faced some challenges with his arthritis, what we didn’t realise was just how amazing his courage and resilience were. Read below and find out for yourself.
Joseph Ryan: “I have had arthritis in my knee since I was 21 years old, sadly nearly two decades ago, and I was told that running any sort of distance would be simply ‘out of the question’. Having had keyhole surgery I limp a lot and often have to live with knee pain on a daily basis.
When lockdown came in 2020, it really limited all kinds of fitness opportunities that I had been used to before, and so I decided to tackle this lifelong desire to run and began training. It’s been a year and along with a lot of teething problems and learning curves, I’m excited to be taking part in this run with my partner and a good friend. A walk became a jog. Jog became a run. 1km became 2 and so on…
I’m actually running both distances in May so it will be a fantastic week! I’m hoping to use the run to raise funds for a hospitality school for underprivileged students in Cambodia, so fingers crossed it’s an all round positive experience.”
