What’s your name and what do you do?
I'm Chloe, a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Biological Sciences studying the use of genetic data to quantify population connectivity in the black-legged kittiwake (a seagull!)
What’s your motivations for supporting women’s health research?
I have friends and family who have experienced physical and emotional pain associated with one or more aspects of women’s health. Both in GP/hospital and domestic environments, professionals, friends and family have been either unhelpful, unsupportive and/or not proactive in helping out a woman in need. From reading, talking and learning, I understand that many common attitudes to women’s health come from the historical, and continued, perpetuation of ideas and stereotypes that range, in their accuracy, from ‘a bit iffy’ to just plain wrong! I would like to do what I can to create a positive and healing environment for our women of today and of the future.
Why Run Balmoral? Have you taken part before?
I love the Scottish Cairngorms – this looks right up my street! Also I have never been to Balmoral, AND it is raising funds for a cause very close to my heart - so a win-win-win!
How’s training going for the big day?
I’m not very strict on this to be honest… right now my training routine consists of just getting out for a jog whenever possible – I am doing some long days in front of the computer and a quick run really helps to loosen the shoulder and neck muscles and to de-stress the mind. This means distances vary a lot, however now that the days are getting longer I have started to enjoy longer evening runs... basically the length of the training run is increasing proportional to increasing day length at the moment!
Any tips for others who might want to take part?
I haven’t done Run Balmoral before, however I do know that the hardest thing to do, when training up for a run, is to get outside after a big day at work. Just remember, you will feel sooo much better within 5 minutes of getting out, plus the mental clarity the exercise brings means that you’ll probably also end up figuring out how to best structure that discussion before you get back ; )
If you're interested in supporting Women's Health Research at the University please get in touch with Lynne at lynne.black@abdn.ac.uk or call 01224 272087.
