Blogging Jogging – a guest post by Pat Kane

Sheila and Stewart’s arrival in Canterbury in 1973 came at a very opportune time for me. I was fed up with working as a social worker and, at the ripe age of 27, was thinking it was time to start a family. Sheila already had a little girl of almost two, Janey, as she was then known, and was therefore in a position to offer advice and friendship. Some time afterwards, when we were visiting Sheila and Stewart and there were several other people present, Martin (my husband) announced: “Well, Pat’s up the spout!” This was a bit of a shock as I had only had the pregnancy confirmed that day and he had just heard the news himself.

Pat & Martin a few years before he got her up the spout!
Pat & Martin a few years before he got her up the spout!

Once I had given up my job – that’s what we did in those days and I had no intention of ever going back – Sheila and I began to see a lot of each other. Sheila by this time was also pregnant so we knew our babies would become friends too. Just before my daughter, Nicola, was born, Sheila and I went on an expedition to the nearest Mothercare store, which was in Margate, to get the basic kit. I think this really amounted to a baby bath, some terry nappies and toiletries. I tried to follow Sheila’s example with thrifty handicrafts and lined a Moses basket (romantic but wildly impractical) and made myself a couple of maternity smocks. When Gwen was born, four months after Nicola, I tried to make a patchwork cot bumper for her out of scraps of old dresses but, in truth, I have always been hopeless at handicrafts and my mother had to help me get it finished.  Thirty years later, this work of art featured as a backing for the quilt Sheila made for our first grandchild, Alfie.  It was good to see the remnants of my old 1960s mini dresses given yet another new life!

Alfie's quilt
40 year old patchwork made by Pat as a cot bumper, remade as a quilt for her grandson Alfie

When our girls were older – I had gone back to the dreaded Social Services and Sheila was also busy with various part-time jobs – it was harder to make time to see friends.  However, the first Canterbury Fun Run was to take place in May 1981 and I persuaded Sheila to buy a pair of trainers and start training with me. I clearly remember the time we first managed to run for twenty minutes without stopping and we realised we had cracked it.  So we triumphantly completed the five-mile fun run, with our friend Mary, and thereafter regularly ran together and with other friends.  Somehow we also fitted in yoga classes and then aerobics. We both became pretty fit at that time and I think this changed our conception of ourselves.  Neither of us was at all sporty but at least we could run and it was an excellent way of keeping in touch with friends. I ran for the next 18 years, when my knees started to give me trouble, and Sheila carried on for a couple more years after that. Nowadays we meet up with other friends from our jogging period at the excellent Pilates classes run by Lindsay in a local church hall.

Mary, Sheila & Pat ready to run the first ever Canterbury Fun Run
Mary, Sheila & Pat ready to run the first ever Canterbury Fun Run
Pat & Sheila on the first ever Canterbury Fun Run
Pat & Sheila looking good!

I think the feeling of being strong, healthy people remained with both of us long after we stopped jogging.  Even though she claims never to have walked up a hill, Sheila knew she had the determination to get herself fit enough to climb up Kilimanjaro. Unlike me, she has no fear of heights and she has strong legs and ankles to keep her stable.  So I am quite sure she can do it. I have even offered, for old times sake, to accompany Sheila on some of her training walks, though she has a head start on me this time.

4 thoughts on “Blogging Jogging – a guest post by Pat Kane”

  1. How lucky that Nicola managed to find some lovely photos of her parents when they were young! I was only 14 when that photo of me as my alter ego, Mrs Merton, was taken. Martin’s is obviously a mugshot from police files taken after his arrest as an accomplice to the Bader-Meinhof gang….

  2. Now you say it I do see the Mrs Merton likeness! Lovely story and great pics – thanks for sharing. Jae x

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