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IT was a huge honour to run the London Marathon – the amazing support from the thousands of people lining the streets and from all those back home in Bahrain helped me forget the pain in my legs. Thanks to the St Christopher’s School community for their support and encouragement.
My run raised more than £2,300 (BD1,318) for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity for children and young people and their families, which provides clinical, practical, fnancial and emotional support to help children cope with cancer and get the most out of life. This year’s London Marathon made personal history for me fnishing the 42km in the time of 04:07:21.
Rob van der Eyken, Year 5 Leader, St Christopher’s Junior School.
I JUST wanted to drop you a line to say many thanks for the F1 prize tickets. It was a brilliant spectacle, and one that I will not forget in a while.
The tickets were absolutely fabulous, and where we were sitting in the Victory Stand, we could see 40-50 per cent of the track, so you could see the drama unfolding as the race went on.
I had a friend fy in from Dubai to watch the race with me, and he is also very grateful as he is a keen motorsport fan.
We did manage to watch the racing on the previous two days as well, so all in all, a great weekend, and thanks again.
Fran Treadgold, GulfWeekly competition winner.
AT one point in my life, obesity was a personal struggle. I experienced first-hand the sense of alienation amongst my peers as a result of my physical appearance and being overweight, or in my case, obese, became not only a health issue – but a social one.
Feeling outcast due to my size, be it by my own self-conscious feelings of inadequacy or by the attitudes and opinions of those around me, I became trapped in a cycle of depressive feelings and comfort eating.
This led me to reflect upon obesity, the epidemic it has grown into and its role and stance in society. Furthermore, due to my depressive feelings as a result of my size, I began to dwell upon the link between the two.
To me, obesity does not beget depression – nor vice versa – it is not a simple cause and effect. It is a dynamic link between the two as a result of the social pressures and the stigma associated with both, in part due to globalisation.
Previously associated with the middle and upper classes, particularly those in middle and higher age brackets, we are now seeing obesity as an epidemic affecting our youth worldwide; whether it be due to the easy access fast food chains as a result of globalisation, or to the ignorance of the health issues present in less economically developed countries, as well as a prevalence of cases in our so-called First World societies. To me, this is an issue that needs to be addressed on a global scale.
However, before addressing such a large challenge, we must first understand that depression and obesity are inextricably linked. The results of both, either individually or together, are dangerous – both to the individual person and society as a whole.
Obesity is not an issue to solve through societal pressure of the perfect body image, but rather it should be addressed as a global health issue starting with children.
Ironically the moment I lost weight, the pressure and bullying from my peers significantly lessened, however my reasons for this weight loss, though initially done for societal acceptance, spawned into my own personal battle to ensure that others understand the health issues related to this epidemic.
Rahul Kapur, by email.
