One Hereford man is preparing for a positive year ahead having put years of misery and suffering behind him.
Ian Socket’s 20-year battle with an eating disorder, which robbed him of his dreams as a promising teenage athlete, ended when he found himself desperately ill in hospital two years ago.
Now, however, as he approaches his 40th birthday, Ian is limbering up in readiness for his run in the Virgin London Marathon this April, and he’s feeling positive about the future and happy to be able to “wear his heart on his sleeve” for the first time.
“Last year marked my return to Alife,” he explains. “After suffering with anorexia nervosa for almost 20 years, I was struck down with a chest infection in January 2008. Things deteriorated and I was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia and a collapsed right lung.”
There was worse to come when hospital staff believed he had succumbed to a virus.
“Norovirus struck Hereford County Hospital causing the doors to be closed to visitors, and I was suspected of having the virus so I was placed in to isolation.”
The experience proved to be a life-changing one for Ian. “Alone, pretty scared and with no family or friends to share my fears, I did some serious thinking,” he said. “Life is too precious to waste like I had been doing.”
At that moment, he vowed to give himself a “kick up the backside”, and decided it was time to “sort myself out”.
With grit and determination he put behind him the awful years when the eating disorder reduced him to a “fragile recluse weighing less than six stones”.
That final straw came with the first drops of blood from the transfusion he was given in hospital. “Alone in a room that I couldn’t leave, I started to reflect on life – big time!
“Reality suddenly hit home about how precious life was, and I decided I was going to get myself out of this hole and do something to be proud of and I’m going to pay back my debt to society for wasting so many years.”
The year 2008 was “all about getting myself back to fitness”, and then he applied for a place in the first Virgin London Marathon, running to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. “Race day is April 25, and it’s the ‘Big 40’ for me on April 3 so I thought what better way to start life, which of course, begins at 40!” he said.
Ian has a minimum £2,000 to raise and he’s hoping to receive support here in Herefordshire.
“My story proves to anyone that however desperate your situation, there is a way out,” says Ian.
