Catherine Dickson shows the heart of a marathoner

http://www.journalpioneer.com/index.cfm?sid=303550&sc=118

Catherine Dickson shows the heart of a marathoner

NANCY MACPHEE
The Journal Pioneer

Catherine Dickson was stunned.
Here she was, prepared to face the challenge of a 10-kilometre walk. She was in Greece with Team Diabetes, ready to do her best and raise money for a worthy cause – and to run in memory of her late sister and mother who had died from complications caused by the disease.
Now, she faced a serious dilemma.
“I didn’t come all this way to do nothing. I want to do this,” she told herself.
Earlier that morning, she and a friend had boarded a bus for the beginning of their walk. What Dickson didn’t know, until it was too late, was that this bus carried marathoners. And the driver was little help, despite her pleas, shooing her off the bus with the seasoned runners.
There, in the pouring rain, Dickson had to decide: run 42 kilometres or quit.
With friend Hilda Seagull, Dickson set out on the gruelling course of steep hills and valleys with a heavy knapsack on her back. The first 20 km weren’t bad. But, with 12 km left, Dickson hit what runners refer to as “the wall”.
Thinking of her family, those who donated towards her $6,100 fundraising goal and of her late mother and sister, Dickson soldiered on.
“I thought, ‘I only have 12 kilometres to do, damn it, I’m not stopping now’.”
Unlike experienced long-distance runners Dickson hadn’t used body glide to lubricate her legs, making each stride more painful than the last.
Then, with only four kilometres left, the rain broke and the sun began to shine. Feeling the presence of her mother and sister, Dickson knew she would finish.
“I knew if I had to crawl it I was going to make it,” she said, choking back tears. “I knew that they were there and that they were cheering me on.”
Exhausted, her inner thighs bleeding, Dickson grabbed hold of her friend’s hand and sprinted to the finish line. After 42 kilometres and seven hours, she had completed her first marathon.
“I was never an athlete,” said the 47-year-old mother of four. “To have someone put a medal around your neck, that was surreal. I was sore but I did it. I set out to do what I wanted to do.”
At the finish Team Diabetes members and veteran runners lauded her as a hero.
“One of the men going by said, ‘you’re bleeding, you’re a true marathoner’.”
Dickson finished ahead of dozens of runners in six hours and 48 minutes.
She says her late sister Clara would be proud.
“I’m going to do it again and I’ll do the 42 kilometres.”
And what would she say to that bus driver?
“Thank-you, I really would. It was a gift. I really didn’t think I had it in me.”

Marathon for family Dickson fundraising for Team Diabetes

Marathon for family - Dickson fundraising for Team Diabetes

http://www.journalpioneer.com/index.cfm?sid=289412&sc=118

Marathon for family
Dickson fundraising for Team Diabetes

	Catherine Dickson displays pictures of her sister, Clara, and her mother, Marguerite, both of whom died from complications of diabetes – Clara in January of 2008 and Marguerite in June of 2009. Dickson will be taking part in a Team Diabetes marathon in Greece in November. Mike Carson/Journal Pioneer

MIKE CARSON
The Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE – The love of a family goes far beyond mere mortality and those of us lucky enough to have it have a powerful tool to make a difference.
Such is the case with Catherine Dickson.
In January 2008, Dickson lost her sister Clara to complications from diabetes. Clara was, and still is, a major influence in her life.
“The greatest gift she ever gave me, growing up she would always say ‘Never begrudge anyone anything,’ because there’s lots to go around for everyone and if somebody has something then they deserve it,” she said. “That was a real life lesson.”
Dickson decided she wanted to do something in her sister’s memory and help find a cure for the disease that claimed her older sister. She became involved with Team Diabetes of the Canadian Diabetes Association, and is preparing to take part in a marathon in Greece on Nov. 5.
Team Diabetes promotes awareness and wellness through these marathons. People who participate in them are either diabetics themselves or have diabetes in their families.
They tap into marathons that are already established and Team Diabetes sends people to them.
“She’s still largely a part of my life,” Dickson said of her sister.
“And it (marathon) was nice for my mom and I. It was something she took a big interest in my doing. She made it her mission too. She was really happy that I was doing it in Clara’s memory.”
But in June of this year, while her mother was promoting her daughter’s marathon dream, the unthinkable happened.
“She was going to go in for surgery to prepare for dialysis,” Dickson said. “She got ill. She went into kidney failure and passed away.”
“The shock of losing my mom in July, I felt like an orphan and that totally took me by surprise because I’m a grown woman,” she said. “I have two daughters in university. And I thought, why do I feel this way?
“The three people in my life who gave me unconditional love, my father (who was also diabetic and died from cancer), my sister, Clara, my mother.
“Even if they didn’t understand what I was doing they struggled with ‘Well it must be important to you’,” she said. “Now they’re gone. I have lots of people in my life that love me but people who love you like that – you don’t have to be a certain way – they just love you, hard core, no matter what.
“It brings them closer into my circle doing this with them in my mind.”
Dickson said with diabetes in the family she has a stake in her own health and in her children’s health.
“I would love for a cure to be found,” she said. It’s amazing how many people have come up and told me, ‘We have diabetes in our family; I appreciated what you’re doing.’
“My sister’s gone and she’s still making a difference in people’s lives.”

Team Diabetes Athens Classic Marathon Website