Running for Good – ‘Queen of the Extreme’ Fiona Oakes (vegan), Part 2 of 5

Today, we will continue our tribute to British endurance runner Fiona Oakes for her extraordinary accomplishments as an athlete and an animal rights advocate. For over two decades, Fiona has devoted her life to rescuing animals and promoting the benevolent vegan lifestyle. She cares for over 600 rescue animals at her animal sanctuary, Tower Hill Stables Sanctuary in Essex, England. Despite the 15-hour workdays and exhausting labor the sanctuary entails, she still finds the time and energy to maintain a strenuous regimen of training runs needed to compete on the world stage. “It is all done for the animals. My running I do to promote veganism, the sanctuary I do to nurture animals. And I’ve been vegan since I was six years old – completely self-inspired decision; my parents weren’t (vegan) at that time. So, my whole life has been pretty much dedicated to helping animals in some shape or form.” “And there’s so much you can learn from animals. Animals are a great leveler and a great teacher if you can listen to their message.” “With regards to the running, I run 9 times a week, about 100 miles (161 km) a week. That is really, really, tough to fit in at the level I am doing.” Thankfully, Fiona has help from some family members and a few volunteers. Two pillars of strength in her life are her mother, Meg and her life-partner, Martin. Fiona is also concerned about the disproportionately high environmental cost of animal-based food relative to plant-based food. In a recent Facebook posting on January 7, 2020, she wrote: “I quote Joseph Poore of Oxford University, ‘A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gasses, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.’”