Cupar stroke survivor set for running challenge

It took the then 43-year-old biology teacher at Bell Baxter eight months to return to work, following a gruelling recovery process which included rehabilitation to restore movement on the left side of his body.

Now, 14 years later, Eric is preparing for three big runs to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, after raising more than £8000 for the Stroke Association.

Eric and wife Lesley, a district nurse in Newburgh, will be running the Benidorm half marathon, the Edinburgh marathon, and then completing the set with the Great North Run in September.

This will be Eric’s sixth marathon, having completed the one in Scotland’s capital three times in the past, as well as taking part in marathons in Paris and at Loch Ness.

The former teacher, who retired from his role at Bell Baxter in 2018, took up running during his rehabilitation process.

Eric had golfed once a week, had started cycling to work, and was in the middle of a game of football when he collapsed.

He had suffered a stroke, and had another shortly after he arrived at Ninewells.

“I remember waking up the next day and thinking ‘I’m alive’,” Eric said.

“It was then I discovered I had what they call a dissection of the vertebral artery going up my neck. It had burst and a blood clot had surged up into my brain. Had that clot gone down the way into my heart and lungs, I would have been dead.”

Eric now feels fitter than ever, having taken up running.

He added: “I’d never really run before, but I remember going to dinner with my wife, Lesley, one night and telling her that I was thinking about doing a half marathon.

“She said ‘what? In your condition? You must be absolutely mad’, but since then I’ve never looked back, even if it has been a pretty steep learning curve.

“For a while afterwards, I was never quite sure when I went to sleep at night if I’d wake up the next day and, at the back of my mind, there is still the thought that I might wake in hospital again. But although I’d lie awake wondering if I was doing the right thing, I now just take each day as it comes, because it’s scary to think what could have happened.”

If you want like to donate to Eric’s triple running challenge just visit his web site at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Eric-Thomson3.