A pub landlady has raised thousands of pounds for charity by running the London Marathon years after her son had to fight cancer.

Sally Williams ran the famous 26.2 mile course on her 50th birthday last month to help raise funds for Young Lives Vs Cancer.

Sally, who lives in Glasbury-on-Wye with her husband and daughter where they run The Harp Inn, said she enjoyed the “unusual” way of celebrating her milestone birthday on Sunday, October 3.

“Normally the marathon is in April but it was pushed back to October because of Covid and I thought ‘well, how else do you celebrate your 50th birthday really?”

The mother-of-two said: “It went really well - I did it in five hours, one minute and 23 seconds which was about half an hour quicker than I thought I would do, so I’m quite happy with it.”

Sally has always enjoyed running and she said she is no stranger to half-marathons, although she said this is her first - and probably her last - full marathon.

It was a scary experience with her son Travis which inspired her to raise money for Young Lives Vs Cancer Click Sergeant as he battled with a brain tumour when he was less than two-years-old.

Sally said: “It’s Young Lives Vs Cancer Click Sergeant - I think they might be dropping the Click Sergeant bit soon because people didn’t know what it was, but the reason I was running for that charity is because many years ago my son had cancer - he happened to turn 20 this year as well.

“He had a brain tumour and he had surgery and chemotherapy.”

While Travis doesn’t remember the health scare, Sally said it was awful for the family at the time.

“He’s doing absolutely amazingly - he’s just moved to London and he’s living his life.”

Sally, who said he’s a cyber-security apprentice, said: “He’s really happy - we miss him like crazy but he’s doing what he should be doing which is what you always hope for your children.”

Speaking about the marathon, Sally told The Brecon & Radnor Express that the first half of the marathon was “amazing” but that it started to feel more challenging during the second half.

She said: “The first half was amazing, I couldn’t stop smiling, the atmosphere is fantastic - you’ve got bands and music all along route.

“There’s so many people cheering you on, there’s people who just open their windows and put speakers on the windows to play music so it’s absolutely electric all the way through.

“The first half was brilliant, then you start to find it a bit more difficult after that. I think I hit what they call the wall at about 23 miles, I started to struggle then but you’ve got your name on your shirt and people start calling your name and it gives you a real boost to keep going, so that really helps having all those people cheering you on.”

Sally, who has been running The Harp Inn with her family since April 2019 - not long before Covid-19 took hold of the UK, said the hardest aspect of the marathon was the training beforehand.

She said: “When I finished it, I did a little video clip and said “remind me never to do this again”, but actually, the hardest bit is the training - that’s the bit I struggled with the most because you’ve got to commit to it.

“I was fine when we were closed but then we opened and we had a full-on-season so I was having to work 16 hour days and fit all my running in at the same time which was really, really difficult so even though the marathon was difficult, the training was harder.”

Sally spent around nine months training for the marathon - since January this year - including a progressively longer run each week where she would add a couple of miles on, rowing on a rowing machine, yoga, swimming in the river - which she especially enjoyed when it was too hot to do other forms of exercise - repetitive hill running to help build up stamina, and speed running.

After finishing the marathon, Sally joined her family at an after party which was hosted by the charity not far from the finish line.

The after party, which included food and a massage, cheered Sally as she walked in before presenting her with a medal for raising money.

The running star said she made sure to save her last bit of energy for the magical moment that she crossed the finish line.

“That bit across the finish line - everybody said ‘make sure you smile and make sure you cheer’ and you save that last bit of energy just to cross that line.

“It’s quite amazing, although I do think that as soon as I crossed it I thought ‘that’s it, I’m not doing that again’.”

After the incredible running feat, Sally stayed in London for a couple of days to recover before returning to the pub.

She said: “Everyone was asking about it and I wanted to talk about it because it’s a huge achievement and they were all happy to listen which was really nice as well.”

Sally has so far raised around £2,800 for Young Lives Vs Cancer which aims to support cancer victims who are aged up to 25.

She said: “I’m very proud of it [the money raised], I’ve never particularly wanted to do a marathon, I never thought I could do a marathon and I’m very pleased that I did manage to achieve that and all the money that was raised, an awful lot of it by our community and the pub, who have supported me no end along the way - not just financially but sort of little pep-talks and everybody has been right behind me. It’s very much a community pub here, we always say it’s not our pub, it’s the community’s because, certainly in the winter, that’s what keeps us afloat - the community.”

The family hosted a fundraiser at the pub to help raise money before the marathon in the form of a race night in September.

The pub showed DVDs of past horse races and got people to bet on which horse was going to win or buy a horse.

If they ‘bought’ a winning horse, participants could receive a free drink and if they bet on a winning horse, the proceeds were split so that they would receive 50 per cent of the winnings while the other 50 per cent went to the charity.

Sally said: “We did hold a race night to raise funds for this and everybody enjoyed it so much they’re saying ‘when is the next one’ but it does take a bit of organisation so we’re taking a but of break and we’re going to look at organising another one for next year.

“It went down really well - didn’t know how it would be received but the pub was absolutely full that night so it was very popular and at the end, I think we had a guess my time’ fundraiser as well so people could choose within a minute of what they thought I’d finish in.

“We had a winner - they won a bottle of spirits - they guessed 51 minutes and that was a local chap a couple of doors down.”

The deadline for Sally to finish raising money is the end of November and she said the pub has a firework display planned for Bonfire Night.

It will be free to attend at 8.30pm on Friday, November 5, at The Harp Inn which will be collecting money for Young Lives Vs Cancer.

It’s not too late to support Sally and her fundraising efforts - to donate, head to her Just Giving page by clicking here.