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Inverness mother-of-three Marianne Pickering is planning to run this year’s Loch Ness Marathon to raise money and say thank you to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity which has helped her youngest child


By Ian Duncan

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Marianne Pickering is running the Loch Ness Marathon for Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity. Picture: Callum Mackay
Marianne Pickering is running the Loch Ness Marathon for Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity. Picture: Callum Mackay

As she approached the milestone age of 40, one Inverness mother-of-three decided to run this year’s Loch Ness Marathon to raise money and say thank you to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity which has helped her youngest child.

Marianne Pickering, of Birchwood Terrace, will tackle the route, which starts just south of Whitebridge and finishes in Bught Park, on October 3 and has already started her training.

Her daughter Aria, who will be three this month, appears to be like any other toddler but lives with severe congenital heart disease – her mother refers to her as a “heart warrior”.

She has undergone a number of heart surgeries and other procedures at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow – she was born five weeks premature and was initially treated at Raigmore Hospital.

Mrs Pickering said: “Within minutes of being born it was clear something was wrong. She wasn’t a healthy pink colour, she was a dusky grey, and was whisked off to the special care baby unit and assessed.”

The doctors told her that they suspected something was wrong with Aria’s heart and she would be transferred by emergency helicopter to a specialist centre in Glasgow.

Unfortunately, Mrs Pickering was unable to travel with her daughter because she had undergone major surgery during the birth and it was deemed too risky for her.

“Lying in my hospital bed, unable to move, and listening to that helicopter taking off was agonising,” she said.

“I lay there sobbing and sobbing and sobbing, my baby, who I had not held yet, was being taken away from me.”

Throughout Aria’s treatment Mrs Pickering and her husband Shane have been helped by the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity which provides much-needed comfort and support for all the children in the hospital.

She said: “They provide staff to play with them when mum and dad need a rest, toys, entertainment, a cinema, all manner of things to take their minds off what they are going through.”

She will be joined on the marathon by her friend Cat Payne, from Kirkcaldy, who she got to know while in Glasgow as she also has a ‘heart warrior’ child.

They are hoping to raise at least £5000 and Mrs Pickering said: “These are much-needed funds for the charity, as they are needed 365 days a year by many, many families.”

• To donate, visit here.


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