Flora London Marathon 2008
Ann Leslie with her medal on Horseguards' Parade after the marathon
On April 13, ZST member Ann Leslie successfully completed her first marathon and in the process has raised nearly £3000 to support the work of the Zambia Society Trust. She decided some five years ago that she wanted to do this, and built up her strength and stamina through training and a series of shorter runs including the Flora women's five-kilometre races in Birmingham and Reading; also in a Reebok cross-country-race in Cardiff and the 10-kilometre Reebok Challenge in Brighton, the Flora Lite Challenge in Hyde Park, and last year the Dorney Lake 10 kilometers and Reading half-marathon.
Ann is the daughter of Richard and Kay Carruthers, well-known and greatly respected Lusaka doctors, who went out to Zambia in 1965 with their four children (two of whom, farmer/artist Helen Collett and geologist Hugh Carruthers are still in Zambia). Richard became head of the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, specialising in thoracic surgery and Kay, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, was probably best known for her work as a GP. Richard died in 1981, Kay in 1996. In 1983 Ann married Mal Leslie, an Australian businessman whom she met in the Lusaka freight and travel business when she worked for Big Game Safaris and he worked for Hill and Delamain. They have three children and live in Reading. Mal has recently retired and Ann works as a science teacher in a prep school in Henley.