A LYDBROOK author has completed his first long distance run since fighting M.E for more than ten years.

Stuart Allison – who goes under pen name Stuart Aken – ran the Great North Run in aid of Action for M.E on September 13 in 2hrs 47mins and 50secs, and was placed in the first 34,000 finishers of 57,000.

“That’s not bad for an old codger of 67 years-old,” he commented. “I have raised £257 so far on my justgiving page (www.justgiving.com/Stuart-Aken/) – it’s still open and it would be great if more people would donate.”

Stuart has written M.E and Me Chronic Fatigue: My Recovery After Ten Years, which gives first-hand experience of living with chronic myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E).

He said: “I’m going to incorporate an account of the run day in a revised edition of the book, as a way of showing sufferers what can be achieved with recovery. That account is given in my blog at stuartaken.net/2015/09/17/running-for-mecfs-no-56-the-end/”