LIFE on the road began at 50 for John Holden - and more than 20 years later he's in training for his fifth London marathon.

John only took up running in his fifties after a long illness, which he now believes was ME.

"I went back to teaching maths at St Bede's and asked Ted Cooper, the PE teacher, if he would help get me fit," explained John, 71, of Woodlands Avenue, Blackburn.

"He started me off walking a mile in 15 minutes, then 14-and-a-half minutes and six months later I was running it!"

And since then, father-of-four John hasn't looked back. He's done four London marathons and even flew over for an event in Malta. He runs five mornings a week and still manages to fit in part time teaching work.

This year he's raising money for the Lord Downing Appeal for a breast cancer research project, which doesn't involve animal experiments and is hoping to raise £600 towards a the appeal's target of £26,000.

Anyone interested in sponsoring John can contact him on 201009.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.