People & Lifestyle story, June 2005
| NURSE’S
KNICKERBOCKER GLORY
Specialist nurse Jane Dawoodi completed an all night run for Breast Cancer - and then took up the challenge of Pants in the Park. As appearing in The Harrow Times, by Andrea Kon |
Specialist nurse Jane Dawoodi is on the run. The 43-year-old Pinner resident not only joined a 13-mile half-marathon Moonwalk to raise money for Breast Cancer research, and was to be seen running round Battersea Park just five hours after the end of the all-night run, at Pants in the Park. She was one of some 62 men, women and children, including former TGWU leader Bill Morris and actress Kika Markham, who donned underpants over their daywear to raise awareness of prostate disease by joining the Father’s Day fun-run.
Jane, who works at the London Clinic, advising men who have undergone surgery for prostate cancer, chose to don snazzy Superman boxer shorts over her usual running gear for the run. Earlier this year she raised £12,000 for Prostate Research Campaign UK when she ran the London Marathon, completing the course in four hours, 33 minutes and 10 seconds.
"I have worked as a continence nurse for years, helping women who suffer from problems after childbirth," she explains. "Then I met Professor Roger Kirby, one of the leading prostate surgeons in Britain. He suggested I might be able to help men who had undergone radical surgery for cancer which left them with similar problems of incontinence. He is chairman of Prostate Research Campaign UK Trustees and that’s how I got involved with the charity."
Twelve months ago, after a bout of illness herself, Jane decided the time had come to get fit. She decided to take up jogging and got into training by running round Regent’s Park, just a stone’s throw from her Harley Street practice.
"I decided to apply to run the London Marathon for the charity. I was accepted and went on holiday to Mexico with a friend and started training in earnest. I was amazed when I realised that I had raised £12,000. Most of it was in small amounts of sponsorship from relatives, friends, colleagues and patients."
Buoyed by success, Jane decided to keep on running. "When my friend asked me to join her on the Moonwalk in aid of breast cancer research, I agreed immediately" she says. "Then I realised that I had already committed to jogging five kilometres round Battersea Park the following day for Prostate Research Campaign UK. Having promised to do both, nothing would persuade me to let either of them down."
"I went to bed at 4am after the moonwalk, got up at 7.30am and managed a short nap under a gazebo that had been set up for the staff before setting off on my run. During the jog, I realised I was getting a lot of pain in my right foot. When I completed the course, I took off my shoe to find the most enormous blister. Luckily, St. John’s Ambulance were on hand to sort it out."
Despite her exhaustion and the agony of her blistered foot, Jane believes Pants in the Park was very worthwhile. "We have to raise money for research into all prostate disease. We also have to raise awareness of the disease so that men go for help as soon as they realise they have a problem," she says.
For further information about the work of Prostate Research Campaign UK or for information about prostate disease, please review this website or contact us at the address below.