A MENSTRIE woman is running 2,021 miles this year to support two charities close to her heart.

Diane Brander decided to take on the mammoth challenge for Dementia UK and Stroke Association in memory of three of her grandparents who suffered from the diseases.

Her gran Peggy McAllister and her grandad Roy Cairns have both passed away, while her other gran Ann Cairns has survived a stroke.

She's currently around six months into her challenge and is pushing on to raise as much awareness as possible.

Diane said: "I started off with the idea of running 2,021 miles this year for a couple of charities, Dementia UK and Stroke Association.

"I had three grandparents who were affected by strokes and dementia, my grandad has sadly just passed away a couple of weeks ago. He had had multiple strokes and he had dementia as well, so I guess it's even more of a reason to do it now to raise awareness for the charities.

"It just made sense to pick a couple of charities that I could relate to."

Running has helped Diane to lose around three stone but she's definitely finding it a challenge this year.

She continued: "In 2018 I was about three stone heavier. I had a lot more to carry around.

"I didn't run as much whereas this year I have to, I'm running pretty much every day so it's more of a challenge."

Diane admits there are days where she's struggled for motivation; however, the death of her grandad Roy gave her fresh impetus.

She said: "I think I was maybe starting to tire and then my grandad passed away, I heard all his running stories from my gran and my mum and it's given me that boost again.

"I know I would have done it anyway but it's given me that fire in my belly to do it for my grandad.

"My gran said she never understood why my grandad had to run every day and now I understand it, I can feel it, I know why."

Diane has worked out she needs to run around 5.3 miles per day but is pushing herself to run at least 10k.

She added: "I try and work out my month in advance so if I was going to do a longer run I'd have a couple of rest days. I done a practice marathon and had a couple of days off after that."

Visit tinyurl.com/3z978ua8 to donate to Diane's fundraiser.