A Scots woman who signed up to run a marathon for a blindness charity was forced to pull out after discovering a previously unknown serious eye condition of her own. Gail Burns, from Edinburgh, had planned to run the London marathon for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in 2022 for her dad, when she discovered that she was suffering from her own serious issues with her eyes that medical attention.
Gail was rushed under the knife for two emergency eye operations and, now that she is on the mend, she will run this weekend's Edinburgh Marathon for both her and her visually- impaired father, who lives with incurable macular degeneration.
"My Father received the news that he had macular degeneration and nothing could be done," she told Edinburgh Live. "This means that he has limited central vision but still thankfully has his peripheral vision.
"With RNIB's help we adjusted to this and I'm so proud to say that my Father is still a very determined independent man. I received a place in the London Marathon to run for the RNIB in 2022 but I didn't realise at the time of accepting a place that I too had eye issues which had gone undetected.
"I had to have an emergency eye operation for a detached retina and then a second operation in 2023. I sadly had to pull out of the London Marathon twice due to these operations and recovery."
As a thank you for all the RNIB have done, Gail now hopes to complete the Edinburgh Marathon on May 28. She has previously run a half marathon but due to pain in her hamstrings, she was advised to stop running nine years ago. After finding some help with a physio and person trainer though she began training for her first 26-mile race.
"I've met a lot of people with sight impairments - all very resilient and inspiring - from my Dad, other runners, to RNIB staff and advocates raising awareness of sight issues," she continued. "I'm pleased to finally be running the Edinburgh Marathon on 28 May for RNIB and I can now say I have a place in London for April 2024!
"By the time May 28th comes around, I will have been marathon training for one year. This is due to stopping and starting during my training plan due to the eye issues and operation recovery times. Training has been tough at times but as it's my first marathon, my goal is just to get around injury-free!"
Gail hopes to raise money for the RNIB so that they can support people like her father who have experienced a diagnosis of Age-Related Macular Degeneration. The RNIB says that the condition, which affects over 300,000 people in Scotland, leaves sufferers with limited central vision.
You can support Gail by donating via her JustGiving web-page here.
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