for HEROES
When Jackie Scully fell ill 10 years ago, she vowed to live every second to the max…
Slipping into my wedding dress I felt a rush of nerves? Excitement? Joy? All of the above, plus a giant dose of adrenalin.
‘You’re going to need it,’ I told my refection in the mirror. There was just one thing missing from my bridal outfit – my trainers. Yes! My trainers.
You see while most brides would describe their wedding day as big, with a lot of planning, mine was even bigger and more challenging…
I was not only planning to marry my fiancé Duncan Sloan on board the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, London, that day, but after saying ‘I do’, I was running the London Marathon!
That’s right, I was going to run all 26.2 miles straight after saying my vows in my wedding dress.
That was seven years ago, however, my story begins with Duncan asking me to marry him one perfect Christmas Day. We’d been together 13 years at that point, and it was a proposal I had been keen to hear… Our happiness was shattered just three weeks later though, when I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. I was only 32.
Our lives roller-coastered from sheer happiness and bliss to terror and fear in just 18 days. The doctors promised to throw everything at me to save my life, and I prayed they would succeed.
Throughout my treatment, I was so touched by the support of friends and family. They sent me flowers, presents, cards, and wrote messages to me – all urging me on, and willing me to keep my spirits up.
It made me realise what’s important in life and I made a ‘Brighter Life’ list – a sort of bucket list – to encourage myself to do more of what I wanted and to challenge myself.
Some of the things on the list included making crumpets, and walking to the top of a cliff to feel the wind on my (then) bald head.
I started a blog called Small Boobs, Big Smiles to share my experiences of breast cancer. I threw myself into baking.
Running was another challenge that I took on. I wanted to give something back. So to mark the end of my chemo, I did a fund-raising 10k run.
Soon after hitting that milestone, I made a vow to raise £100,000 for charity over the next decade.
Since then, I’ve run multiple half marathons, two marathons (including the one on my wedding day), trekked the Great Wall of China, run a 34-mile ultra-marathon, walked 66 miles around the Isle of Wight, completed a half Ironman, and climbed a few mountains for good measure!
Then in 2020, along with 16 others, I broke the World Record for the longest static cycling class. We s
