“I’m conscious life is short and seeing my nan live to 92 made me want to make the most of mine. So, I started running.”
Jason Coyne
It was only the strong competitive streak inherited from his nan in whose memory he was running, and the knowledge so many people had sponsored him, that helped Beckenham born Jason Coyne complete a gruelling volcano run in The Azores for St Christopher’s.
A distinct lack of volcanoes to train on near his new home in Bromley, unseasonally stormy weather and, in hindsight, inappropriate kit, meant Jason had to call on all his reserves and remind himself of his reason for running as he neared the end of the Ten Volcano Trail Run on the mid-Atlantic, island territory.
“I thought I might need to ‘white flag it’. But the fact I knew so many people were donating to St Christopher’s for me kept me going. And I was just thinking of my nan and asking her to help get me over the line – and to beat my brother. She was extremely competitive, and I got that from her.”
Despite both his father and uncle, David and Francis both working as stewards at the hospice, it wasn’t until Jason’s nan, Dorothy Coyne, spent over a week being cared for at St Christopher’s in June 2024, that he first visited.
“I really didn’t know what to expect. But I vividly remember saying to my dad how peaceful it was. It was a period when there was lovely weather with beautiful blue skies and I remember sitting out in the garden with my nan, my parents and family and just thinking what a lovely place it is. We sat by the pond or by my nan’s bed and shared stories. Nan was the matriarch and such a strong character so there were lots of stories and I’ll never forget those times.”.
When Dorothy died in June last year, Jason, who had been an active teenager but who’d found exercise had fallen by the wayside as an adult, decided it was time to act. “I really wanted to start looking after my health,” says Jason, who works as an operations manager for a multinational company.
Pretty quickly, Jason’s older brother, Sean Coyne, suggested the two of them take on the volcano trail in The Azores where he now lives with his family. And it seemed like the perfect opportunity to raise money for St Christopher’s too.
“Everyone in my family said my brother would win, so that made me even more determined to beat him. I trained on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. The tricky thing is, there aren’t many volcanoes in Bromley. So, I found a hill in Chislehurst and on weeknights I’d run up there eight times and then at weekends run up and down a valley near Shoreham on the weekends.”
“I got to 18km and my hamstrings were burning.”
So, by the time Jason lined up next to Sean on the start line at the bottom of the first and steepest of the volcanoes – Calderia – he felt confident.
“I just said, ‘see you at the end’. And, sure enough, I didn’t see him again.”
That makes it sound like a stroll. It was far from it. And, while he did finish 32nd out of the 300 competitors from 40 countries and, crucially, an hour ahead of Sean, Jason says the race was seriously gruelling.
“We got to the top of Calderia, and the wind was 50-60mph, there was no visibility, terrible hailstones and I had no rain jacket, didn’t have full trail shows and everyone else had trail sticks.”
Having successfully completed the 25km trail in just over three hours, and raised more than £1300 for St Christopher’s, Jason is keen to try again next year, with the right kit and prepared for all possible conditions.
“This time I’ll be competing against the clock rather than my brother! And, with all my strong family connections to St Christopher’s, I’m always going to be biased towards raising money for them.”
You may also be interested in
Transforming Heart Failure Care
Connecting Teams, Empowering Patients, and Improving End-of-Life Support
Celebrating our fundraising heroes
How our amazing supporters help us "eat an elephant" every year
