A HASLEMERE runner in this year's London Marathon could hardly believe it when she was picked out by TV's Des Lynham at a special reception this week.
Retired ballet teacher and head of the former Little School Nursery, Sue Farley from College Hill, said she was "tickled pink" when the sports presenter chose her as someone who might inspire him to have a go himself at the marathon one day.
At 60, Sue is running her second London Marathon and is the oldest of the 49 members of the Daily Telegraph Brain and Spine Foundation team.
She was even more surprised when friends phoned her on Tuesday when they saw her beaming out from the newspaper's countdown story to the London Marathon.
She was pictured with Des Lynham, the honorary captain of the Telegraph team and former champion jockey Richard Dunwoody.
Sue has a special reason for being part of its fundraising efforts.
A volunteer helper at Holy Cross, Sue is part of the team caring for patients who suffer from neurological disorders. In particular she helps in the rehabilitation of a 36-year-old friend of her daughter who sustained serious head injuries in a car accident two years ago.
Having been in a coma for nine months, the friend, whose husband and family live in Kent, now needs constant nursing care.
"She was a brilliant show jumper, mother to two children, a baby of eight weeks and a two-year-old, and was a real lover of life.
"My job is to help in her rehabilitation and try to stimulate her senses as much as possible. When I struggle through the fog and frost around the hills of Surrey, I think of her and am well motivated.
"The London Marathon this year is for her, her family and the tremendous work done at Holy Cross Hospital," said Sue.
Sue is hoping to knock an hour off last year's time of just under six hours "so Des Lynham doesn't have to wait too long for me to cross the line" and raise even more than the £4,000 she collected for the Leukaemia Research Fund last year.
The Brain and Spine Foundation was established in 1992 by leading neurosurgeons and neurologists to address the low level of resources being directed to neurological disorders. Sue would like to hear from anyone willing to sponsor her. Phone 01428 652293.