A 91 year old athlete who has run the London Marathon twice took on a new challenge to celebrate two major milestones at the care home where he now lives.
John Carson, a former member of the Eryri Harriers running club, volunteered to do a couple of laps around Pendine Park’s Bryn Seiont Newydd care home in Caernarfon.
He was among a team of residents and staff who walked around the beautifully landscaped grounds 40 times to mark Pendine’s 40th anniversary and Bryn Seiont Newydd’s 10th birthday.
Each circuit was a quarter of a mile in length so 40 laps when added together meant they would complete a total tally of 10 miles.
For his first lap John was joined by another Eryri Harriers veteran, Emyr Gibson, a leading Welsh actor and singer who works as the Creative Practitioner at the care home.
Emyr gained fame playing Meical for more than 18 years in the hit S4C Welsh language series Rownd a Rownd. He is also an accomplished tenor.
At Bryn Seiont Newydd, he works closely with the home’s talented musician-in-residence Nia Davies Williams and other enrichment staff to provide a varied and therapeutic programme of arts, crafts and music activities for residents living with dementia.
Emyr, who loves his work at the home, was delighted to find common ground when he and resident John Carson chatted about their love of running. It quickly emerged that they were both long-standing members of Eryri Harriers.
Emyr said: “John has an amazing running record and he can still build up a fine pace today. If I can walk quarter of a mile as well as he can when I’m in my nineties I’ll be a happy man.”
Originally from Matlock, in Derbyshire, John first came to North Wales when he got a job at Trawsfynydd power station. He quickly settled and fell in love with the panoramic scenery.
He said: “I grew up running in Derbyshire. When I was at school there was no such thing as school dinners so I had to run home every day for my lunch. We lived at the top of a very steep hill, so when it came to running mountains I found I was already well trained!”
John carried on running well into his 70s when he won several awards for notching up the best times in the veterans class.
He said he hugely enjoyed taking part in the Bryn Seiont Newydd walk: “It’s always good to get some exercise – it’s great therapy for the mind and the body. Doing this makes me feel like I’m 21 again!”
Other residents who took part included Kathleen Taylor who delighted in building up a brisk pace as she strode along the pathway bordering the colourfully planted garden’s herbaceous borders, accompanied by enrichment activities co-ordinator Elliw Owen.
Kathleen said: “It’s nice to get out in the fresh air and build up our energy levels. The gardens are beautiful at this time of year which makes it all the more enjoyable.”
Residents Henry Brian Jones and Huw Williams joined Bryn Seiont Newydd manager Sandra Evans to complete a lap together, rewarded at the end of it with a warming coffee.
Huw said: “It’s been great to see everyone getting involved and being so enthusiastic. There are definitely lots of smiles here today.”
Sandra, who’s been at Bryn Seiont Newydd since it opened in 2015, added that it was inspiring to see fellow staff and residents waving 40th anniversary pennants and bunting from windows as they went by.
She said: “It is amazing to think that a decade has gone by since we first opened our doors to residents here at this wonderful site in Caernarfon. We have become like a big family, Bryn Seiont Newydd really is a home from home for residents and staff.
“With both our 10th birthday and Pendine Park’s big 40 happening in 2025, this year is extra special for us all and it means every event, like today’s ‘Walk for Wellbeing’, is given even extra significance. It’s a double anniversary which we’re all happy to applaud.”
Colourful bunting marking the milestone occasions currently decorates the walls around the award-winning home. Carers, Rhiannon Thomas and Karen Perry, helped some residents, including a delighted Marie Hughes, to make some additional supplies for the day of the 40-laps walk.
Rhiannon said: “Some of our residents are not able to do the walk for various health and mobility reasons but they still wanted to join in and so we made sure they could watch and wave from the windows, cheering the walkers on.”
