Identical twins from the Isle of Man who adopted a healthy new lifestyle, losing four stone between them, ran the Father’s Day Half Marathon in Guernsey for charity.
Sue Downward, from Ramsey, and Lynda Plaskett, from Farm Hill, Douglas, ran the half marathon in order to raise money for the Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF).
The twins have so far raised almost £1,000 and completed the race in 2 hours 51 minutes crossing the line hand in hand.
‘The last couple of miles were really hard,’ said Sue afterwards.
‘We’re both the wrong side of 50 and have lost a fair bit of weight, but we still feel we’ve got a way to go,’ she added.
The twins are volunteers for TwinsUK, an organisation whose main aim is to investigate the incidence of osteoporosis and other rheumatologic diseases in a small cohort of several hundred identical twins.
‘We only started running when we were 54 and ran in the Syd Quirk Half Marathon, then afterwards swore we’d never do that again,’ said Sue.
‘TwinsUK read about us taking part in that race and asked us if we’d do this one as well.
‘I think we’ll stick to 10k races now though, we’ve been doing line dancing as well to keep fit,’ she added.
‘Lynda’s got a “let’s do it” attitude, she has done paragliding off a mountain top, so she’s always keen to have a go at anything.
‘We did indoor sky diving in Milton Keynes on New Year’s Day.’
Donations can be made by cheque, payable to ‘Chronic Disease Research Foundation’, specifying ‘TwinsUK DEXA Machine – Half-marathon’, to Christel Barnetson, Department of Twin Research, St Thomas’ Hospital, 3rd Floor, South Wing, Block D, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH.