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Meet this week’s Teacher Feature…

Mike’s Story…

“I run for my wellbeing, to keep active and for rather silly challenges!” 

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Back in June, Mike and 5 of his friends took on a challenge which he had dreamt up during lockdown. “It started as a I wonder moment, with another mate, over messenger one night. That then developed into a does anyone else fancy it group chat” explained Mike. 

Back in 2005 is where the story starts however, with Mike 30ft down a ravine, trapped in a rally car having had a massive accident. It took the emergency team at the remote forest location, an hour to cut them out of the car whilst a paramedic from the Wales Air Ambulance (WAA) administered treatment. Just 10 minutes later Mike was in hospital, fighting for his life. Blood clots on his brain, a torn and missing lip, a leg bent backwards from the knee and a number of other internal injuries meant Mike had a battle, but thanks to the response from the WAA, his chance of recovery had improved ten fold. 

Mike had grown up in North Wales, he was an avid mountain biker and had a love of rallying. As soon as he could he was sitting in a rally car and found a passion for codriving, sitting in a wide range of cars with a wide range of successes. Mike was also well aware of the WAA and when ever he saw a donation box would chuck a few pounds in. What he didn’t realise however was one day they would save his life. 

Anyway, back to the messenger story some 18 years late. Since the accident Mike had made a promise, to raise funds for the charity who had rescued him and give back at every opportunity. A groups of friends always supported Mike’s rather bonkers challenges and this year was no exception. Mike suggested #PeaktoPeak24. This was a scary idea, the Welsh 3 Peaks which are no mean feat walking just individually, include Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) in the North, Cadair Idris in the West and then Penyfan in the South.  But Mike’s mind wanted a challenge, so with a love of cycling, and having previously completed some big one day rides he added the bike in between.

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So why does Mike run? To get fit for this challenge, living at the bottom of the Wirral which is rather flat, having a busy family life with two energetic daughters, he decided to maximise his fitness he would hit the pavements, usually late at night or early on a weekend morning. This proved really successful, with the team completing the full challenge in 22 hours. 

What started as a way of training, grew into a habit and now Mike regularly grabs his trainers and heads out for a quick 5km or 10km run. However, it doesn’t end here. On October 1^st Mike is heading to Cardiff to take on their awesome Half Marathon, and again he will be supporting the truly life saving Wales Air Ambulance Service. 

Mike commented, “The last year of running gave me a chance to get out, with the WAA being so important to my life and always wanting to give back, the half in aid of them seemed a good idea. The best bit however is my lovely Wife Vicki, also a teacher has been inspired to join me after a visit to the base and seeing the work the charity do.” 

We wish the Hughes’ Half Marathon Challenge all the good luck we can, and if anyone would like to donate, please click here! 

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Click the link bellow to follow Mike’s active journey on Twitter!!!