Salisbury woman to run London Marathon as a Cream Cracker
Sally Orange has run marathons as several bits of fruit before!
A Salisbury woman is running the London Marathon this weekend dressed as a Cream Cracker.
Sally Orange has a history of running marathons in costumes of various fruit and veg, all in aid of mental health charities.
“I do have a bit of a crazy claim to fame in that I am the only person in the world that has ran a marathon on every continent dressed as a different piece of fruit,” Sally told us, adding “I recently completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.”
Asked why she uses the costumes, Sally explained:
“I love it when I see people's faces and their smiling. It's always nice to make people smile, but they'll often come and say to me why? Why are you dressed as an apple or an orange?
“And I tell them that I'm trying to break that stigma associated with mental ill health and it subtly starts as conversation.”
Sally is running on behalf of several charities, including SSAFA The Armed Forces charity, Walking with the wounded, Scott’s Little Soldiers and the Stars Appeal.
For 22 years, Sally served with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a physiotherapy officer: “I know with a physical injury, the sooner it's treated, the quicker you can get better and get back on with life.
“And I now know from lived experience that that's the case with mental health as well.”
A lot of emphasis to aid good mental health is placed on talking, but Sally stressed the importance of listening too: “As well as talking, I'm also really a big advocate of the case of listening and that's for the person who is unwell.
So, for me, for a long time, people were telling me I don't think that things are quite right, but I I didn't want to listen. I didn't want to accept it. And if I had of listened, then perhaps I could have got some, got some help.”
And expression goes beyond a conversation: “Some people are not talkers, and you know some people prefer to communicate through word, so different things. Although I run to help with my mental health, things like poetry or art, it's a way that people will express something.”