Molly’s Santa Dash for CHSF

Heart warrior Molly Hayes, from Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, was only 14 when she was the first woman to finish the Leeds Santa Dash back in 2022

She ran the festive 5K race in an impressive 22 minutes and 44 seconds! 🤯

This is even more amazing when just three years prior, Molly’s parents were told their daughter had a 10% chance of surviving heart surgery.

Complications began when a then when nine-year-old Molly suffered a stroke in February 2018.

This resulted in the right side of her body being paralysed. For over a year Molly took regular trips to Sheffield Children’s Hospital where doctors unsuccessfully tried to work out what had happened.

In May 2019, Molly was recommended to see a doctor in Leeds. It was then she was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Wolff-Parkinson-White is a condition that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast. At one point Molly’s heart reached 256bpm and after multiple attempts to lower it, doctors had no choice but to stop her heart completely.

“That girl that was lying in bed would be so proud of me!”

Molly had ablation surgery at the Leeds Congenital Heart Unit in November 2019 and during the four-and-a-half hour operation Dr Dominic Hares found that she also had complications with her heart valves. Molly said that afterward she was told that if the surgery had not been performed, she wouldn’t have made it past Christmas.

When asked what inspired her to start running, Molly said that she “gained a lot of weight” during her recuperation – especially during the Covid lockdowns in 2020.

“In the few years after being prescribed beater-blockers that slowed my metabolism, I went from being 8st 8.8lbs, to over 13st. I used food as an escape from my trauma and this allowed me to gain more and more weight.

“In October 2020, I went on a run for the first time. Honestly, I am unsure what compelled me to go. It was raining, I owned no running clothes or shoes, and I had no desire to do any physical exercise – but I still did it.

“I ran 0.8 miles and was practically crying at the end, but the next week I went out and did it again.

“I logged all my runs from that point onwards onto Strava, and the furthest I ever went was a mile. A ten-minute mile. My dad ran with me, and when he couldn’t, my auntie or Grandad did.

“I did the same route every day for over a year. Not going any further, or any faster – but always indulging in a large Costa Cooler at the end of every run!”

Molly said that it was in December 2021 that her mum encouraged her to exercise with her in their home gym, where she set herself the challenge of doing 3km. She said:

“I had to walk-run it but at that point I just wanted to do it. So, every month I set a goal to run an extra kilometre. Then in July my dad took me out to a 5km and I loved it!”

Molly’s dad, Richard, inspired her to get into running and is now her coach!

“Later that month I did a park run in 29 minutes and I just kept wanting to get better and better. In August I ran my first 10km and then a week later I did York 10km in 54 minutes!”

The York 10K was Molly’s first race after so much hard work and training. She chose to run it to raise money for Children’s Heart Surgery Fund and hit her first fundraising target soon after.

When talking about the Leeds Santa Dash, Molly said:

“Since then, running’s become more like an addiction. At first, I just wanted to lose weight but now I just run because it’s my life. Santa Dash was the first race I’ve ever won, and I got a 5km PB so I’m really proud of myself. It’s really special because three years before I was in a wheelchair recovering from heart surgery.

“At one point I thought there was no point being alive anymore. It’s really hard for a kid to say that but I was just 10 years old sitting in a hospital bed being like ‘what’s the point?’. So, to do races like this means so much because you’re winning stuff and I think ‘That girl that was lying in bed would be so proud of me’.

“I don’t do it for myself now. I do it for the Molly that was really poorly, and was wondering whether she was going to live through the night.”

We are so incredibly proud of what Molly has achieved and so grateful for all her fundraising efforts in aid of Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. Thank you Molly, you are a true inspiration to so many!