Woman completes one of seven marathons for charity

Verity Pitts is attempting to run all seven World Major Marathons in eight months

A woman from West Sussex has completed the first of the seven World Marathon Majors in an attempt to raise £10,000 for Breakthrough T1D and The UK Sepsis Trust.

Verity Pitts, 25, a flight attendant from Worthing, plans to complete all the marathons within eight months, all during layovers between her flights.

On Sunday she started the Sydney marathon at 06:30 local time (21:30 BST), before flying out at 15:00 (06:00 BST) for an eight-hour flight to Singapore.

She described the marathon as "hilly" and "hot", and said she woke up "very achy".

She also told BBC Radio Sussex she started the marathon late due to issues with her bib which then affected the rest of her layover time.

"It was crazy," she said. "I had to run from the finish line to the hotel to very quickly get changed and very quickly get downstairs for the bus."

Ms Pitts achieved a personal best at the Sydney Marathon

Ms Pitts, who survived sepsis at age 19, was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was 20 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aside from raising funds, her goal is to make sepsis "more well known".

Sepsis is a life-threatening and hard-to-spot condition according to the NHS, and develops when the body's immune system has an extreme response to an infection and starts attacking its own tissues and organs.

The UK Sepsis Trust estimates about 48,000 people die each year from sepsis-related illnesses, "thousands" of which are preventable.

"How lucky am I that I to get to live when that wasn't always promised," she said.

"Being able to do something like this makes me feel like I'm using my second chance at life in a fun way."

Ms Pitt's next marathon is in Berlin on Sunday 21 September.

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