Marathon runner raises £1,000 for Little Smiles

Marathon runner Rosanne Walker Hosken has raised over £1,000 for Little Smiles charity following her participation in the London Marathon last month.

It was the second time Mrs Walker Hosken had completed the 42km race around the English capital.

In fact, it was her second marathon ever having only taking up running in 2017 at the age of 49.

She completed the route in six hours 11minutes, last year she finished in six hours 29 minutes.

“I wanted to raise money for a local charity and I have a work colleague who has Little Smiles very close to her heart,” she said.

“I decided pick them as they do an amazing job.”

Mrs Walker Hosken also ran the marathon for WellChild, a UK based charity, as she was not successful through the ballot and had to enter the race via a charity.

“Once I had reached my target for Well Child I decided I was going to run for a local charity,” she said.

This meant she had to wear the Well Child t-shirt and not Little Smiles. Together with her son Tyrone they raised £3,300 for that charity.

However, on many other occasions Mrs Walker Hosken wears her Little Smiles shirt when competing in other races in Gibraltar and Spain. The first time she wore it was when she did the Gibraltar half marathon.

She plans to wear it as much as can to help raise awareness of the charity, which in turn might result in donations being made to Little Smiles.

The London marathon is very close to Mrs Walker Hosken’s heart.

It was the first marathon that her son Stephen, a well-accomplished runner, ran and his participation and what that meant to him inspired her to start running.

“He just applied and he got in first time, which is rare,” she said.

“That was the marathon of life, he trained for that and when I saw him running I thought I want to do this one and since then I have not stopped running.”

“When he got into that marathon, in 2017, we all went as a family. When I saw him going by and what he was doing it was really emotional and I just thought I want to do this too,” she added.
Prior to this, she never ran.

“I have never ran in my life, so I joined Theresa Jennings a personal trainer from PT Revolution on a couch to 5k and that is when I started in 2017. Since then I have not stopped running.”

This means in less a year, ten months to be exact, Mrs Walker Hosken went from couch to marathon.

Prior to that first marathon she ran some half marathons, such as the one in Seville, Malaga and Gibraltar.

She has applied to run in London 2020 via the ballot and if successful she will run for another local charity.

In the meantime, she has races in June in Torreguadiaro and San Roque to prepare for.

Her next half marathon will be the Brighton half marathon in February next year.

Donations are still be accepted until the end of the month on Mrs Walker Hosken’s fundraising page: https://gogetfunding.com/little-smiles-2/