The Sunderland Sting

22 APR2011

Sunderland City 10K hopeful Darren Timby is keeping his fingers crossed for an incident-free preparation for the big north-east event. Last year the 29 year old had a nasty encounter with a wasp as he took to the road in training for the Great North 10K. Darren was left stunned as the insect flew into his mouth and stung his throat.

Sensibly Darren headed straight for hospital and related his sorry story to anxious medical staff who acted immediately. Darren recollects: "I was flushed out with antihistamines and a camera was fed through my nose down my windpipe. And there it was - a full barb sting from the wasp on the camera screen.

"I was rushed to theatre where the surgeon searched for the smallest tool possible to remove the offending object from such a delicate area. Everyone was very calming and soon I was under anaesthetic. The next thing I knew I was awake and asking to see the sting to prove they'd got it out. An hour later and after some ice cream in my ward bed everyone, including staff nurses, doctors, cleaners and other visitors, wanted to hear the story and see the wasp."

Despite his scare Darren can't wait for the inaugural redspottedhanky.com Sunderland City 10K, although he'll be looking out for wasps on his training runs. He is determined to raise money for a cause close to his heart - DebRa, a charity working on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition Epidermolysis Bullosa. Darren's four year old son Luke suffers from eczema, and Darren is hoping to do the race in under one hour in aid of DebRa.

"I am hoping for a time of about 55mins," he added, "I've started training, but I haven't seen many wasps around yet so I should be safe."

Entries for the redspottedhanky.com Sunderland City 10K are now open at the event website.