Hadeel Hassan has negotiated a lot in the past few years: a PhD, profound depression, cerebral palsy, a dyspraxia diagnosis, the transformative power of running, and selection as a major sports brand’s ambassador. Life is full of surprises…

Words Rachel Ifans

Let’s start at the end. Partly because sometimes it’s nice to shake things up. But mostly because Hadeel Hassan’s last words during her chat with Women’s Running are the sort of comments that linger long in the mind.

Although we’d challenge anyone who dared call Hadeel average (she’s pretty awesome actually, despite her modesty), her words sum up beautifully what running can bring to someone’s life.

“I’m an average runner,” she says.

“Sure, I’ve been through some things.

But it’s really no diff erent to what other people go through in life, it’s just that I’m being more vocal about it. But never in a million years did I think I could be an Asics Frontrunner. The moral of this story is: if I can, then anyone can.” See what you think. Being reminded that running can bring so much to one person’s life, can make the heart soar.

Hadeel is a doctor from Leeds who is just coming to the end of a PhD, investigating how to improve the side eff ects in children of certain treatments for cancer. “I started running about four years ago,” she says. “I was married for seven years and then we split up. During the time of separation I wanted to have something to focus on and wanted to be active too, so I started doing 5K distances, then 10Ks and half marathons and now I’ve also done three marathons.

“I have mild cerebral palsy which aff ects one side of my body. Cerebral palsy is a lack of oxygen to the brain at birth. It’s ultimately like having a stroke at birth and you can end up with mild or severe consequences. For me, it aff ects the right side of my body and, although I had a lot of physio, wore boots and used splints when I was young, my right side will always be weaker.” “I dabbled with running at university, but whenever I was under a lot of pressure I’d just stop. So this past four years is probably the longest time in my life I’ve managed to maintain it. The longest I’ve had off in that time – because of an injury – has been a week.” So it’s fair to say she’s been bitten by the bug? “I think the way I’d describe it is that it has completely transformed my life. I started running with the intention of getting a bit more active.