Tanya Cross-Walton will be pushing herself “to the extreme” when she runs in this year’s Cheltenham Half Marathon.

The soon-to-be 40-year-old has never run further than 5K in a race before and admits that running in the Cheltenham Half on Sunday 30th September is a “very, very big step”.

Not that Tanya will be lacking motivation when she takes on the 13.1-mile challenge which starts and finishes at Cheltenham Racecourse.

That’s because she is running to raise funds for her little girl Amelia-Rose, who is just four and unable to walk unaided.

Amelia-Rose has cerebral palsy mimic, a very rare undiagnosed condition which means even though she doesn’t have cerebral palsy her body thinks it does which in turn causes pain and stiffness in her legs.

Tanya and her husband Ben, who is planning a 100-mile charity walk from London to Bishop’s Cleeve next year, have been desperately trying to fundraise for Amelia-Rose so that she can have Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery in the US – they are hoping to raise £100,000 to pay for the operation and the intensive rehab that follows.

“I wanted to do something that would push myself to the extreme,” admitted Tanya about her decision to run the Cheltenham Half.

“I’ve been doing fitness training with British Military Fitness for just over two years. I’m a mum to two kids and I’d got to the point where I was overweight. I needed to get out and do some fitness training.”

And British Military Fitness – which consists of outdoor fitness classes run by ex-military people at 140 venues across the country, including Pittville Park in Cheltenham – has certainly ticked every box for Tanya, who by her own admission is not a particularly sporty person.

“I’ve loved it,” she said. “The instructors and outdoor sessions are great along with the social side which is brilliant. I would highly recommend it to anybody of any level of fitness.”

So how is the training for the Cheltenham Half going?

“It’s going really well,” said Tanya, who is Bishop’s Cleeve born and bred. “I’m in week 11 of my training and I ran 18K on Sunday.”

When asked what time she hopes to record a week on Sunday she laughs and says “before the roads reopen!”.

Push her and she’ll say she’s hoping to complete in just over two-and-a-half hours.

She’s sure to get a huge cheer from spectators at the racecourse – she’ll be wearing a T-shirt in support of Amelia-Rose’s appeal – and she had hoped that Amelia-Rose would be able to cross the finishing line with her.

That won’t happen because Amelia-Rose has an appointment in the US on 1st October with the surgeon Dr Park who will be carrying out the operation which will hopefully be in the latter half of next year.

“That’s too important a date for her to miss,” said Tanya, who lives in Bishop’s Cleeve and works as an Implementation Consultant in Quedgeley.

Amelia-Rose’s dad Ben Walton – an accountant who works in Cheltenham – will be with the four-year-old in the US, so Tanya’s chief cheerleaders at the Cheltenham Half will be her parents Tim and Liz Cross, who also live in Bishop’s Cleeve.

“They will be with my youngest daughter Chloe who has just turned three,” explained Tanya. “Hopefully Chloe will be able to cross the finishing line with me.”

And while Amelia-Rose obviously won’t be there on her mum’s big day, she will certainly be in the thoughts of everyone who knows her.

“She’s just started at Woodmancote Primary School and she loves it,” said her proud mum. “She’s always smiling. She loves to giggle and always wants to have fun.

“She’s also very determined, she’s such a strong, brave little girl.”

And her mum, who was educated at Bishop’s Cleeve Primary School before going on to Bishop’s Cleeve Comprehensive, is pretty brave too when you consider that the last time she took part in a race was over 20 years ago.

“That was over 5K at the racecourse,” she explained. “It was in aid of breast cancer and I finished in 35 minutes.”

So will Tanya keep on running after a week on Sunday?

“Definitely,” she said, “I’ve got the running bug. I’ve done all the hard work now, I wouldn’t want it all to go to waste. I enjoy it so much, I will keep doing it, 5K’s or whatever ready for next year’s half.”

To support Amelia-Rose’s appeal, visit https://just4children.org/children-helped2018/amelia-rose-wants-to-walk/ or https://www.facebook.com/ameliawantstowalk/