Peterhead woman runs 18 marathons in 18 days for tragically deceased teenager

A 'crazy' Peterhead woman is running 18 marathons in 18 days to remember a very special toddler who died suddenly.

That's 471 miles, which is daunting enough, but Nicola Buchan – who is running her eighth marathon today – admitted she hadn't trained for it.

The 35-year-old runs her own gym in Peterhead, NB Fitness. One of her clients is Fiona Strachan, who started training Nicola when Fiona was pregnant.

When Fiona and her husband Joe's son Archie was born, she continued to attend gym classes with Nicola and took her little boy with her.

“I let kids into my gym, so I saw Archie once, sometimes twice a week,” Nicola said.

“He just became a big part of the gym family and really a part of my life. He was a funny little guy.”

Mama Fiona described him as “a happy, smiling little guy.”

“I put him to bed, and when I went to get him in the morning, he was lying dead in his bed.”

However, in March of this year, tragedy struck.

“He never lacked anything, he was never ill,” said mother Fiona.

“I put him to bed the night before and when I went to get him in the morning, he was dead in his crib.

“There are no words to describe it.”

At just 18 months old, Archie fell victim to sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC), which affects one child every week in the UK and can occur up to the age of 18.

A month before Archie's death, Fiona found out she was pregnant and was thrilled at the prospect of giving Archie a sibling.

“You think your family is complete and then you're completely blindsided,” Fiona said. “And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.”

Peterhead woman's decision to put on running shoes has raised nearly £30,000

Archie’s death also hit Nicola hard.

“When I heard he had died, I couldn’t imagine not seeing him again,” Nicola said.

“To help Fiona and Joe and also to give myself something to help me get over Archie's death, I wanted to do something.

“And the number 18 always stood out because he was 18 months old.

“I thought: What am I not doing anymore? Running. What will be difficult? What will people donate to? So I ended up doing 18 marathons in 18 days.”

Nicola has already raised over £27,000 for SUDC UK, a pretty incredible sum considering her original target was already an ambitious £10,000.

SUDC UK is a charity dedicated to raising awareness, supporting families and promoting and funding research into SUDC.

Nicola's route will take her from Peterhead to Rora, through Mintlaw and back again. Archie's father Joe will join her for the final marathon on September 5th.

“What I’m going through now is nothing compared to Archie’s mom and dad”

By the end of her 18th marathon, Nicola will have covered nearly 500 miles, which makes her complete lack of training seem somewhat dubious.

But as she explained, there is a symbolic reason for her lack of preparation.

“I haven't trained for it. I'm a strength athlete and I have a competition to be Britain's strongest woman in November. I'm not a runner, I just do the occasional 5k.

“The reason I haven't been training is because it symbolises not being prepared for something like what happened to Joe and Fiona. You just have to take each step as it is, each day as it is.

“I want to make that clear to people and hopefully make them feel that when you're going through a difficult time – whether it's what Joe and Fiona went through or anything else – you can't always be prepared for things, but that if you take it one day at a time, you'll get through it.”

She added: “What I'm going through now is nothing compared to Fiona and Joe.

“I would rather run a marathon every day than lose my child.”

“They could raise a million pounds, but that wouldn’t bring Archie back”

Although Fiona and Joe have a lot to look forward to as the couple will celebrate Christmas with a new child, Fiona admits she is nervous about what happened with Archie.

“It's nerve-wracking. With Archie, there were no telltale signs at all, nothing to point to.

“There are no tests for this child, so how do I know it won’t happen again?”

Fiona is overwhelmed by Nicola's fundraising efforts, but admits she feels bittersweet feelings.

“I am so proud of Nicola and everything she does, she is incredible and I can’t thank her enough,” said Fiona.

“But in the back of my mind I think you could raise a million pounds, but that wouldn't bring Archie back.”

“This is Archie’s legacy”

I asked Fiona what she thought about Nicola running 18 marathons in 18 days without training.

“She's crazy.”

Nicola interrupts: “I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life, but this is probably the craziest.”

Fiona added: “Neither we nor Nicola want this to be done in our name.

“This is Archie's business, everything is in his name, Archie donates all the money, this is his legacy.”

“You look forward to him going to school and getting married. Then it will all be over.”

Neither Fiona nor Joe could put into words the feeling of losing a child so suddenly and at such a young age.

But Joe did his best.

“You're always looking forward to it and thinking about when he's going to go to school, when he's going to do that, when he's going to get married. And then it's all over.

“Nobody should have to go through this.

“Hopefully one day, with the help of research, they can find something visible, see a trend, so they can prevent something like this from happening.”

To donate to Nicola Buchan’s Run for Archie Strachan visit: