Turkey: Runner for charity makes mark on way to Nepal

BURSA, Turkey

After setting out from Britain months ago, a septuagenarian runner raising money for charity made her distinctive mark in western Turkey on Monday.

Rosie Swale Pope, 73, started running solo in July 2018 and covers 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) a day while pulling everything she owns in a red cart behind her to support the U.K.-based charity PHASE Worldwide, which empowers isolated communities and needy people in the south Asian country of Nepal.

"I have a big purpose. I‘m running from Brighton to Kathmandu to help children and other people in very remote areas in Nepal," Pope said of her 6,000-mile marathon to Nepal.

Speaking to reporters in Gemlik, Bursa, the global adventurer said during her travels through Turkey she got a great deal of interest from people.

"I've fallen in love in Turkey. I have faith and trust in the Turkish people," she said, adding that she feels "very proud" to be in the country.

Pope said that she is running to Nepal to support people who "suffered a bad earthquake."

"The purpose is to help these talented people start again with the correct tools and help," she added.

Reiterating her love for the locals, the traveler said she is grateful to Turkish officials for the "magic of making it possible" for her to run across the "beautiful" Bosphorus bridge in the metropolis of Istanbul, which she crossed last December.

Calling herself an "ordinary old woman," Pope said although life is not easy in many parts of the world, "love is the strongest thing".

"I'm now 73, which is really quite young, however, I may not live to be 173,” she quipped.

“So I'm going to do everything in my life to help people and to bless my wonderful son and daughter, and my grandchildren."

The British runner said she has experienced traveling in many countries, adding that the believes she is "safe" in Turkey.

"People are so good, I'm so proud of them," she concluded.

Throughout her life, Pope has been involved in numerous marathons in "some of the world’s most challenging terrains and has embarked upon many adventures including trekking across Chile on horseback and sailing across the globe in a small boat," according PHASE Worldwide’s website.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara