Rowe running to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s

Jo Rowe is ready to run the Dunedin Marathon next month. Photo: Linda Robertson
Jo Rowe is ready to run the Dunedin Marathon next month. Photo: Linda Robertson
In a life before family, Joanne Rowe ran in more marathons than she can remember.

But she has plenty of motivation to run in next month’s Dunedin Marathon, her first in almost a decade.

Spurred on by the memory of her mother, who died from Alzheimer’s in February, the 45-year-old practice manager’s main objective is to raise awareness  and funds for the illness.

She will be joined by friends Haydn Youens and Nic Bathgate in tackling the new-look full marathon course.

Her mother suffered from the disease for 15 years  which had the family on a roller-coaster ride of emotion.

Coming out to New Zealand from England in 2002, Rowe at times felt helpless living on the other side of the world while raising a young family, but maintained regular contact with her family, getting back to England whenever she could. She noticed a significant decline in her mother’s health when she last visited in October last year. But it was when she visited a year earlier  Rowe got the urge to really want to do something herself in raising awareness of the disease.

Rowe realised last October she could not put it off any longer and really needed to get active and and go into battle.

"It’s that feeling that you really want to do something, but the person you want to care for is so far away, you feel quite helpless in that. So what could I do?" she said.

"I found out about Alzheimer’s in Otago, and that it is very prevalent in New Zealand.

"There is the belief that there will be around 170,000 people with Alzheimer’s by 2050 [in New Zealand], which is a significant amount of people.

"And there are very few people that I have talked to that haven’t been touched by it in some way. I realised that fundraising is something that is really needed.

"Mum was a runner herself and was always very active and supportive of other people. She was always there for people. It only seems right I do something to honour her memory."

Rowe added  her grandfather side was also struck down with Alzheimer’s and can remember her father getting up at 2-3am to go and look for him.But in her quest to take on the Dunedin Marathon course, Rowe has to overcome a demon of the course.

A year on from the birth of her fourth child, Rowe decided to run another marathon and entered the 2011 Dunedin Marathon, but it all ended very unceremoniously at 17km, when she succumbed to what she later discovered was pneumonia.

Any thoughts of running another marathon were not rekindled until she decided to do it in support of Alzheimers Society Otago and the memory of her mother.

"For me it has always been just a case of taking part and really enjoying it, and keeping fit.

"I never thought I’d come back to it [running] and I’m glad I did.

"I’m loving it. It would be great to inspire other young mums to run."

Rowe is also hopeful that a group of people could run in the Dunedin Marathon each year for Alzheimer’s.

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