By Emma Foster, Community Newswire
A Norwich teacher is running the London Marathon on April 26 to raise money for The Hepatitis C Trust.
Natalie Nicholson, 42, has chosen to run for the charity because her husband Oliver was diagnosed with Hepatitis C 20 years ago. Oliver was treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin two years ago but although this is is the best available treatment for hepatitis C, it wasn't successful for him.
While the couple wait for new drugs to become available Natalie felt strongly she wanted to do something positive and decided to run the marathon.
She said: "My husband was diagnosed with Hepatitis C many, many years ago but only started displaying some of the symptoms recently.
"He was put on interferon but sadly it did not have the desired effect and after three months the treatment was stopped.
"Since then my main priority has been to keep life as normal and healthy as possible for my husband and our two sons.
"We went to a Hepatitis and Me conference at the Royal Society of Medicine last year and, to be honest, came away feeling a little gloomy that new treatments appeared a long way off.
"It was then that I decided to try and raise money and awareness in some way because there didn't seem to be anything else that I could do and I had a real need to do something.
"I don't pretend to be a very fast runner but I'm really hoping to complete the course - all 26 miles of it - raise some money (hopefully £5,000 this time) and raise awareness of this illness which the general public seem to know so little about."
The mother-of-two has been engaging the support of her pupils at Old Buckenham School, Norwich, who took part in a fundraising and awareness-raising mini marathon at the school.
Natalie added: "If my husband didn't have hepatitis C, I wouldn't know what it was.
"People just don't know about hepatitis C - 80% of those infected don't know. I believe I have a responsibility to change that and at the same time stop the stupid stigma that surrounds it."
Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk, Keith Simpson, Natalie's local MP, has given his support.
He said: "I wish Natalie all the best for her training and the marathon. It's great that Natalie is taking such positive action to educate people and improve awareness of the silent killer that is hepatitis C."
Hepatitis C is an infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and can be passed through piercing, tattoos, transfusions, razors or sharing toothbrushes.
Symptoms vary from general fatigue, to flu-like feelings through to digestive problems, joint pains, mood swings and depression. There is no vaccine against hepatitis C, but treatment can achieve a cure in more than half of patients.
Patients can live for many years without experiencing symptoms, so many remain undiagnosed.
The Hepatitis C Trust is the national patient-run charity that provides a range of services offering support, information and representation for people with the disease. For more information, go to www.hepctrust.org.uk.
To sponsor Natalie go to www.justgiving.com/natalienicholson1.
