Mum to run one mile for each hour of son's surgery

An Eastbourne mother whose son was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain condition last year is running the London Landmarks Half Marathon for the hospital which aided his recovery.

Kirsty Hibbert, 50, is running one mile for every one of the 13 hours her son Elliot was in surgery at King's College Hospital, following his diagnosis with a brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM).

Kirsty said she started running with her friend Kim Muckle when feeling "stressed" during Elliot's time in hospital.

"It's just really the worst thing that you can imagine going through as a parent...there are times when we didn't know if he'd make it through," she said.

An AVM is a tangle of blood vessels in the brain which connect arteries and veins directly, bypassing normal capillaries.

Elliot, now 17, said that because this condition "puts more strain on the veins" it is associated with a greater chance of brain bleeds and "possibly death or brain damage".

Thankfully, with the help of the surgeons at King's College Hospital, he has made a remarkable recovery.

Elliot said: "[The half marathon] is an opportunity to help the people out who helped me out and my family.

"I'm really grateful and happy that she's doing it."

Muckle said it was a "bit crazy" that the pair were set to take on the 13.1-mile (21km) challenge, having only started running last summer.

Kirsty said they had already raised nearly £4,000 for the King's College Hospital Charity, including £2,900 at a recent fundraiser.

"We are really blown away by everyone's generosity," she added.

The London Landmarks Half Marathon is on 12 April.

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