A high barren landscape covered in grass, heather and rocks. There are several valleys that run up into the main hillside. A path leads the eve to the distance where there is a war memorial.
Abstract hill that also looks like a letter f and the words fell run that look like a shoe

About

Hello, I’m kel, pleased to meet you.

I am disabled and a fell runner.

There, I said it.

It was never a secret exactly, and anyone who knows me will probably have worked it out already, but opening up so publicly about this has not been an easy decision to make. On the one hand I don’t want to tell anyone, why should I? On the other hand, in recent years and as I get older, the impact of my disability becomes more profound, it seems important to be open and honest.

I also need help. This lifelong condition is not going to get better.

Finally, I realised that what I do can be inspiring for others, and I genuinely hope this is the case for you too.

This blog and website is my way of doing all these things.

I should clarify; I am neither particularly disabled, nor am I a particularly good fell runner.

I was born with a club foot. My left foot. Technically known as talipes equinovarus (TEV), this congenital deformity used to be very visible in society. It was not unusual to see someone wearing a built up shoe to accommodate the difference in leg size and foot orientation, hobbling along making the best of life despite the physical limitations.

That was until the early 70’s when revolutionary surgery practices became more commonly available.

A multi stage process lasting years involved cutting the tendons in the foot, including the achilles, stitching them back together again and using splits, or restraints to hold the foot in place while the tendons healed.

They did this to me three times in the first three years of my life.

The doctors and surgeons said I would never run… yet running has become the mainstay of my spiritual, mental and physical well being in later life.

While I am not winning any races, I have become sort of okay at running, in 2023 I did my first half marathon on the fells in a not too terrible time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, in a storm, at points up to my thighs in bog!

Here is my story. The plan is to share everything I have learned.

Old photograph of a baby (me) in a chair wearing an all in one short sleeved and legged white baby grow, both legs are in plaster, my left leg is pointing outwards. There is a metal bar, a splint, between both feet holding them in position.

This is me at a very early age!

If I look fed up, well, that’s because I probably was, but this is how it started.

If you have got this far, thanks for reading it really means a lot to me.

Here’s what to do next: