Thurso woman completes 416-mile running challenge to highlight sexual violence
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An ultra athlete from Thurso has called for better protections for victims of sexual and gender-based violence after completing a gruelling 16 marathons in 16 days.
Lorna Stanger told Humza Yousaf that education, awareness and improved legislation could help those affected in the Highlands and across Scotland.
She met the First Minister when she visited the Scottish parliament at Holyrood on Thursday during her 13th marathon, before completing the 16-day challenge back in Caithness on Sunday.
As well as raising awareness of the United Nations’ 16 days of activism against gender-based violence along with fellow campaigner Myra Ross, who penned a hard-hitting 16-verse poem which was printed on T-shirts for Lorna to wear each day when she ran, Lorna was also fundraising for Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland (RASASH).
She said it was important to get the message across that such abuse can happen to anyone, anywhere.
“It’s something that’s going on -– it’s not an accident, it’s not an illness – and it can have that devastating effect on people,” she said. "And it’s caused by actual gender-based violence, and it’s a hidden thing.
“The poem became very important to the run. When I heard Myra’s poem I thought the 16 verses for 16 days through the Highland Violence Against Women Partnership would be an ideal fit for running the marathons, and we got our heads together on that.”
Lorna (54) ran her first marathon in Inverness before attending the Reclaim the Night march, which was organised by Myra, who is a training officer with the Highland Violence Against Women Partnership.
She has since completed marathons in Thurso, Wick, Forres and Edinburgh, racking up at least 416 miles over the 16 days.
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On Thursday, Lorna was among a number of campaigners who were welcomed to Holyrood as part of the launch of Equally Safe, A Scottish Government strategy to take action on all forms of violence against women and girls.
Lorna said that more laws were needed to better protect victims, while education and wider awareness were needed to make it easier to discuss openly.
She said: “It was only recently, for example, that coercion and controlling behaviour were made illegal, so if there are things that are making people vulnerable and exposed to this kind of behaviour they should look at that, because there is always a pattern with it.
“It took a long time to accept that coercion and controlling behaviour was something that put people in danger, so it’s a combination of education, awareness and legislation that would be better able to protect and equip people against this.
“I would hope that there would be improved legislation so that it would be more difficult and so that there would be harder penalties for the perpetrators. It’s often the victim that suffers the most. Perpetrators will use victim shaming to silence the victim and society doesn’t want to hear about it or thinks ‘it doesn’t happen here’.
“But that should change and the victim should be able to speak out, so it’s about stopping the violence and stopping the victim shaming, and it’s often that shame that stops people from speaking out and allows the perpetrator to get away with it. So again, it’s really all about awareness, education, and legislation.”
While Lorna put in the miles, and has raised more than £1250 for RASASH on her JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/page/lorna-stanger-1700653856110 so far, she said the awareness-raising drive was a team effort.
She added: “Myra’s poem was saying Imagine Scotland without violence against women, but also imagine this was someone you knew and this was happening to them – people need to see that too because it could be happening to someone they know.
“Running with that T-shirt, wearing it and sharing it, Myra’s way of using poetry is really effective. A lot of credit goes to Myra – I did the running but she has written that poem and together the combination with the 16 days of activism got the message across.”
Having finished the running challenge by incorporating a cross country competition at Forres on Saturday, followed by the Santa 5k at Staxigoe on Sunday, Lorna could be forgiven for putting her feet up for a while. However, on Monday she took to the pool for a long swim before judging at a swimming event.
“If I had to go out and do it again, I probably could have,” she said, “but I’m quite glad I didn’t have to!”
