Mina was born in the UK and moved to Nigeria when she was five years old. Mina had a carefree childhood growing up in Northern Nigeria with siblings, before deciding to move back to the UK at sixteen to continue her education.
Mina shares more about this challenging time in her life, from losing her mother at eighteen years old and having to work three part time jobs to support herself as she continued her education to become a Doctor.
Mina talks about her reasons for deciding to join the army and how she incorporated fitness into her already busy schedule. Mina talks about her passion for running and why its such a big part of life, she talks about training, jegging and taking on her first marathon and what she has learned along the way, and why she has kept on running even after being diagnosed with Lupus (autoimmune disease) a long-term condition that causes joint pain, skin rashes and tiredness.
If you are passionate about running then this is the episode for you to listen to, Mina will inspire you to take your first step and to sign up for a marathon, whether that’s taking on a fast flat marathon like the Berlin Marathon or deciding to head to New York City to experience a running atmosphere like no other.
Listen to Mina now on the Tough Girl Podcast - available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud & iheartradio.
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Show notes
- Being born in Newcastle
- Moving to the North of Nigeria at 5 years old until 16
- Being the middle child
- Being able to walk to school and living in a very peaceful area
- Spending a lot of time outside
- Moving back to England at 16 for her education
- Wanting to be a Doctor from a young age
- Her journey to joining the military in the UK
- Being independent from a young age
- Working 3 jobs while being in full time education
- How it all changed in her 3rd year at University
- Being accepted into the Army
- Being able to focus on her studies full time
- Broken sleep and studying for University
- Kindness of strangers who helped her
- Not getting the A’Level grades she needed
- Losing her mum at 18
- Going back to college for another year and getting offered a place at Southhampton
- How fitness and maintaining her health during stressful times
- Finishing university and focusing on her military fitness
- Learning how to run and focusing on swimming
- Being taken outside her comfort zone
- Being stubborn and not liking to be told no
- What drives her
- Learning to be comfortable in her own skin
- Starting to love running
- Deciding to run her first marathon to raise money for charity
- Signing up for the Berlin Marathon
- The benefits of going on long runs
- Being diagnosed with Lupus
- Jeffing - walk/run
- Figuring out her run training and focusing on her pace
- The Hanson Marathon Method
- Happy memories from the NYC marathon
- Telling her story to inspire young women
- The Namu Project
- Visiting Internally displaced people (IDPs) at camps in Nigeria
- Crochet with plastic bags
- Maintaining her positivity when there is so much to do
- Needing to impact one person
- Taking her children to the IDP camps
- How the charity is coping doing Covid
- Wanting to teach basic breast examination to women
- Final words of advice to motivate and inspire
Social Media
Namu Project - “Namu" is Hausa for "ours". A charity working towards alleviating poverty through training, education and empowerment.