A GREAT-GRANDFATHER who recently celebrated his 80th birthday will be competing in his 139th running race in five years when he tackles the Jane Tomlinson York 10k on Sunday.

Cliff Simm, of Stillington, reluctantly took up running 28 years ago when somebody suggested he should start exercising as a way of combating depression.

“I was very depressed,” he said. “My wife had died, my children were all grown up and left home and I was on my way to a nervous breakdown. I wasn’t eating or sleeping.

“Somebody suggested I go for a run round the sports club field, but I said ‘I can’t do anything like that’. Then a very delightful young lady said ‘I’m going to do it, will you do it with me?’. So I thought ‘I can’t refuse that.’ “I went with her and then the following day I secretly went out when nobody was about and did the same thing again.

“My appetite came back, I relaxed and the exercise did so much good for me.”

Cliff, who was assistant principal at York College before his retirement in 1992, is now president of Easingwold Running Club and regularly competes in the York and District Road Race League. He said: “Running has kept me going. It gives you a feelgood factor that really helps to shake off any black feelings. I’ll keep running until I drop.”

Sunday’s race will be Cliff’s 139th race since his 75th birthday and his eighth since he turned 80 in June.

He said: “I admire Jane Tomlinson hugely. She was fantastic. She always had such a cheerful face and she was such an inspiration to everybody.”