Former police sergeant from Bishop’s Stortford Tim Kelly running 78th and final marathon in Australia for Ehlers-Danlos Support UK

An experienced marathon runner from Bishop’s Stortford is dedicating his 78th and final race to a charity that raises money for research into a debilitating condition that affects his daughter and granddaughter.

Tim Kelly, a retired Hertfordshire Constabulary sergeant of 25 years, has been taking on the 26.2-mile distance for four decades, with his personal best of 2hr 59min 45sec being set at the 2002 London Marathon.

Now, at the age of 69, the Dalton Gardens resident is being forced to call time on his marathon career due to an irreparable knee injury.

He is looking forward to taking to the start line one last time when he travels to Australia to compete at the Marathon Age Group World Championships in Sydney on September 15.

And he is hoping to hit his £1,000 fundraising target for charity Ehlers-Danlos Support (EDS) UK as both his daughter Liz, 39, and nine-year-old granddaughter Annabelle live with the condition.

The EDS syndromes are a group of 13 individual genetic conditions, all of which affect the body’s connective tissue and often with disabling symptoms. Liz was later diagnosed with hypermobile EDS (hEDS), the most common type of EDS.

“When she was a child, I saw my daughter, Liz, tie her limbs into all sorts of positions I didn’t think possible,” said Tim. “Quite sweet in a child, but we were unaware of the future consequences.”

Symptoms can include joint pain, extreme tiredness, skin that bruises easily, digestive problems such as heartburn and constipation and problems with internal organs.

Liz, who lives in Beldams Lane with Annabelle and husband Darren, said: “Every morning is a lottery as to how the symptoms will present themselves.”

Patients wait an average of 11 years for the complex, multi-system condition to be diagnosed and the only specialist NHS hEDS centre in England was closed a few years ago due to lack of funding.

“I would love to know a day without pain, but instead spend even my good days at a pain level that would have most people unable to function normally,” said Liz.

“On the bad pain days, I still have to push through as there isn’t the support, understanding or awareness of the condition to allow me the reprieve I need to let my body rest when it needs to.”

Tim has been running on and off at Bishop’s Stortford Running Club since 1986, but made his marathon debut in Gloucester in 1983. He went on to race his first Dublin marathon in 1995 with colleagues from the police and has run 50 of his 77 marathons in Ireland - the tougher courses there suit him and he loves the craic afterwards - including 27 consecutive Dublin Marathons.

He registered a time of 3:38.08 in Dublin last October - his best effort for a number of years - and was delighted to discover it had earned him a place at the world championships.

A team of medics are trying to fix him up to ensure he can compete for one last time Down Under.

“I aspire only to get round Sydney, collect my medal and raise what I can for EDS UK,” said Tim. “If I can run under four hours I will be ecstatic!”

Due to the breakdown of the medial meniscus in his left knee, Tim has had to change his training routine to best prepare for the upcoming race.

“My training regime previously was four runs, one spin session and two weight sessions in the gym a week,” he said. “This has needed to reduce by one run session and the spin as I have to be very careful with the angle I put weight through my knee.”

Due to the new routine, Tim has strengthened the area around his knee and can train at about 60% of his previous level with little pain.

Tim, who lives with his wife Carloyn, 37-year-old son David and Patterdale terrier Finn, had a short eight-year teaching career which ended at Sawbridgeworth’s Leventhorpe School in 1984 before joining the police. Much of his time was spent as a sergeant in Stortford.

After retiring in 2009, he used money earned from jobs with G4S and at Stansted Airport to fund retraining in horticulture at Capel Manor College before starting his own gardening business in 2013.

EDS is estimated to affect about one in 5,000 people globally and around 13,600 people in the UK, although this number is thought to be an underestimation.

Tim has so far raised £365 of the £1,000 he hopes to generate for EDS UK. You can add to his total at www.justgiving.com/page/tim-kelly-1720560818308.

Article author Libby Clement did work experience at the Indie during the summer. She is about to start Year 11 at Hockerill Anglo-European College in Bishop’s Stortford and lives in Sawbridgeworth.