{"id":20465,"date":"2026-04-23T14:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/20465\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:38:12","slug":"how-chirag-patel-35-transformed-his-physical-and-mental-health-to-take-on-the-london-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/20465\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chirag Patel, 35, transformed his physical and mental health to take on the London Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chirag Patel hit rock bottom in lockdown, a call to the charity Mind<\/a> proved a pivotal moment. In the intervening period, he\u2019s transformed both his physical and mental health \u2013 and wants to spread the message that \u2018there is true strength in vulnerability\u2019. On Sunday, he\u2019ll be lining up at the London Marathon<\/a> hoping to prove to himself \u2013 and others \u2013 that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. RW caught up with him to hear more about his transformative journey…<\/p>\n

\u2018A few years ago, I was at one of the lowest points in my life. I felt I had nowhere to turn. I was aware of Mind through their branding and seeing their number plastered everywhere. So I called them, they explained what kind of therapies and services were available, and it was a transformative, \u201csliding doors\u201d moment for me. <\/p>\n

\u2018I had recently lost my mum, who I\u2019d been so close with. She\u2019d suffered a stroke the year before and I\u2019d gone from someone who was being taken care of to someone who was the caregiver. Watching her deteriorate was really tough. Six weeks after she died, my eldest child was born, so there was a lot going. <\/p>\n

\u2018Something I\u2019ve identified now is that anytime I’m stressed, I overeat. And this stressful period happened to coincide with lockdown. I was eating takeaways most nights. That feeling of being full pushed out all the other feelings I was avoiding. I was also drinking a lot. It all snowballed and I went from a healthy 86kg to 144kg. <\/p>\n

\u2018I just withdrew from society. I didn\u2019t see any of my friends. I didn\u2019t want to go out. I didn\u2019t like the way I looked. I was at rock bottom in terms of self-esteem and self-confidence.<\/p>\n

\u2018My route back to fitness wasn\u2019t primarily through running but resistance training<\/a>. The running supplemented it \u2013 one shorter run and one longer run per week. I soon found myself pushing the distance<\/a>. And by challenging myself, I noticed my confidence grow, not just inside the gym, but outside it.<\/p>\n

\u2018By doing difficult things that I didn\u2019t initially want to do, like running, it made better at tackling the other things in my life I\u2019d been avoiding. After running, I felt more confident and able to take on the challenges of the day. <\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s what made me sign up to the London Marathon: I wanted to take on a really ambitious challenge. When I looked at the charity route, I saw Mind and immediately knew I wanted to raise money for them<\/a>. I\u2019m a British Indian and, culturally, there\u2019s a big stigma attached to mental health. So another part of the journey was me being able to talk about what I\u2019ve been through. People have reached out to me \u2013 old friends and random strangers \u2013 thanking me for sharing my story or saying they\u2019re going through the same thing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mind helped build a marathon training plan for me. It\u2019s based on three runs a week. I\u2019ve had to turn down the resistance training because I can\u2019t fit both things in, but I think training has gone as well as it could have. I\u2019ve missed only two runs in total and am hoping that all the hard work pays off. <\/p>\n

\u2018There is true strength in vulnerability. I used to think that being strong meant ignoring the feelings of despair and never saying \u201cI\u2019m feeling low.\u201d But it’s only when I started speaking up about how I was feeling and what I\u2019d been through, that I saw true progress.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sharing your story is scary, because you feel like you might get judged. But when you become vulnerable and real, it is a powerful moment \u2013 and something that can be transformative.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u2018Listen, there are still days when I stare at my running shoes<\/a> for 20 minutes, putting off going out the door. But pushing yourself to do these things changes the way your mind works. And lots of these challenges, I think, are mostly about mindset.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trying to train for a marathon as a dad of three obviously brings its own challenges, but again, it shows what is possible. If you can do this, you can probably do other things and tackle a lot in your life. We put these limits on ourselves, but there\u2019s usually a way of doing something if you set your mind to it.<\/p>\n

\u2018By running the London Marathon on Sunday, I want to show that, no matter what point you reach in your life, anything is possible.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Chirag is running the London Marathon in support of Mind: justgiving.com\/page\/chirag-patel-letsgo<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Chirag Patel hit rock bottom in lockdown, a call to the charity Mind proved a pivotal moment.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[9488,7678,9490,2771,2770,27,9487,7890,9489],"class_list":["post-20465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-9488","tag-content-type-advice","tag-contentid-7a7dabed-b214-4fb0-a810-5f1dbedb2a09","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-gb","tag-london","tag-shorttitle-how-chirag-patel","tag-subsection-motivation","tag-transformed-his-physical-and-mental-health-to-take-on-the-london-marathon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116454536171113148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}