2026-02-23
Reluctant Rachel finds a gradient in a strange town.
Sponsor her to run 10K for our charity and show that menopausal women can learn to move.
You can read more about Rachel’s training on her JustGiving page. Do share!
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog #8
2026-02-20
Breaking news – Reluctant Rachel has run 10 kilometres for the first time!
We are now hopeful that she WILL manage the (hillier) Edinburgh 10K to raise money for our charity in May. Fingers crossed!
“I ran 10K!!! Admittedly it was in very flat Norwich, and I stopped numerous times to walk for a bit, and it took me over an hour and a half, which I think is the maximum time allowed at Edinburgh Marathon Festival. But I did it! And I survived. Next up a shorter run in Wiggle Bottom Park, because I think it’s such a funny name!”
You can read more about Rachel’s training on her JustGiving page. Do share!
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog #7
15th Feb 2026
Reluctant Rachel is training in Norwich this week. But it’s been snowing!
She’s aiming to run 10K for our charity in May at Edinburgh Marathon Festival .
Her longest run to date is 6.8K, will she break the 7K barrier today?
Norfolk is flat, which should help. Edinburgh is not.
Inspired by Norwich strong women, Julian Of Norwich and Edith Cavell, and by the generous people who’ve sponsored her on Justgiving , off she goes!
Rachel is also channelling “Mind Over Mood” by @popupcbt , since there is a distinct lack of endorphins.
Cheer Rachel on to 10K and help make menopause part of everyday conversation by donating to Menopause Cafe charity HERE
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog #6
Yay – Menopause on the Move team has reached 5% of its fundraising target!
Yay – Menopause on the Move team is no longer a team of one. Rachel has been joined by Valerie!!! Valerie is also a middle-aged woman, showing that women can learn to move more.
Our bone and heart health decline post-menopause, so it’s important to move more, preferably raising our heart rate and bearing our own weight. What do you do to move more?
Photo of Rachel at the St Andrews Parkrun last weekend, with bride-to-be Zoe. Zoes’s hen party weekend included doing the parkrun on the morning-after-the-night before!
Cheer Rachel on to 10K and help make menopause part of everyday conversation by donating to Menopause Cafe charity HERE
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog #5
7th Feb 2026
Reluctant Rachel is feeling cheerier this week, as she manages the St Andrews parkrun despite the wet, windy and cold weather. Not as hilly as last week’s Oakhillparkrun Route B, thank goodness! But not as flat as her home turf at Perth parkrun.
Sponsorship now at 2%, so we’re gaining momentum! Cheer Rachel on to 10K and help make menopause part of everyday conversation by donating to Menopause Cafe charity HERE
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog#4
31st Jan 2026
Rachel thought she’d try 5K with a slight incline at Oakhill Parkrun, London this morning, a step up from her home run at pancake-flat Perth Parkrun.
But, due to mud, they were using Route B, with a steep hill, that she went up THREE times!
After this Rachel thinks the 10K at Edinburgh Marathon Festival will feel like a breeze!
Cheer Rachel on to 10K and help make menopause part of everyday conversation by donating to Menopause Cafe charity HERE
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog#3
30th Jan 2026
January pay day at last!
It’s been a long month. We’re hoping you’d like to share some of your pay with our charity, to help make menopause part of everyday conversation.
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
Our founder, Rachel Weiss, has signed up to run 10K at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival. She’s only ever run 6K before, so this is a challenge!
Rachel will be wearing our new Menopause Cafe Active T-shirt, here she is modelling it, whilst doing “cross-training” ie avoiding running by doing yoga.We need £20K each year to keep the charity running. Rachel is aiming to raise £6K, which is ambitious.
Thank you, Michael, for getting the ball rolling and being our first donor.
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
#EMF #5Kto10K #ReluctantRunner #CrossTraining #MenopauseCafe #menopause
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog#2
25th Jan 2026
Meet Lovely Lisa from Letham4All!
Reluctant Rachel was Properly Paniced by last week’s post, announcing she’s going to run 10K at Edinburgh Marathon Festival in May, to raise funds for our charity. So, after Sunday’s 5.8K run, she got herself down to Letham4All for some Cross Training!
“Cross Training” and “Training Plan” are two phrases Rachel learned this week. Cross Training means training for a run by not running, which sounded great to Rachel, until she realised it means doing Other Exercise.
Lovely Lisa runs a class rejoicing in the title “Legs, Bums and Tums”. Reluctant Rachel knows she needs strong Legs to run 10K by May, so she went to Lisa’s class. There were colourful objects called Weights, and also big Rubber Bands. Reluctant Rachel didn’t know what she was meant to do with these. Lovely Lisa showed her. Reluctant Rachel couldn’t do it, even with the smallest, lightest Weight and the most elasic of the Rubber Bands.
But Lovely Lisa is Very Encouraging and told Rachel to do the exercises without any Weights or Rubber Bands to start with, and then introduce these gradually. So Reluctant Rachel will return to Lovely Lisa’s class next week for another go at Mission Impossible.
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
Have you tried Cross Training?
What do you do that’s Not Running, but helps you run?
It’s another gloomy, dreich Sunday afternoon today, for Reluctant Rachel’s Practice Run. Maybe she will make it to 6K today, with a small hill???
Watch this space.
#ReluctantRachel#LovelyLisa#5Kto10K
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
Rachel The Reluctant Runner – Blog#1
18th January 2026
After hearing, repeatedly, that we need to look after our bone and heart health during and after menopause, Rachel reluctantly did the Couch to 5K programme in 2018. After several false starts, she managed to run the Perth Santa Run 5K to raise funds for our charity.
She’s sort-of kept up the 5K, thanks to Perth parkrun . But now she’s turning 60 and wants to prove that menopausal women can move, and learn new tricks. So Rachel has warily set herself the target of running 10K at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival in May.
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
Only problem is, she doesn’t like running, certainly not on a grey, dreich day like today. So it was dark by the time she finally got herself out of the house. This was a chance to wear her Proviz bodywarmer (or “gilet” as they seem to be called nowadays” and reflective top, which caused further delay searching for them.
Rachel has not run, at all, for the last month, so today’s aim was simply to run for 30mins without stopping and see how far she got.
Sadly she’d forgotten to charge her distance-measuring device until just before setting off, so it quickly blacked out leaving her withno idea how far she’d run or for how long. Nonetheless she persisted.
Rachel is motivated by Fear of Letting People Down.
Donate here on Rachel’s Just Giving Menopause on the Move page
So we hope you will consider sponsoring her to do the EMF 10K in May, so that she can’t duck out of it. Or maybe you’d like to join her for the EMF 10K or the EMF 5K on Team “Moving Through Menopause”?
Watch this space to see whether she manages to keep training, and remembers to charge that watch, or take her phone, and manages to recruit anyone else to join her.
All tips welcome!
Inspire us with stories of you taking up movement for menopause and achieving new heights or depths.
Proviz would you like to sponsor the Moving Through Menopause Team?
Menopause Café charity shortlisted for this year’s Scottish Charity Awards
Run annually by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the Scottish Charity Awards celebrate the best of Scotland’s voluntary sector.
This year’s shortlist includes 42 individuals and organisations from charities and voluntary groups across the country following a record-breaking number of nominations.
Menopause Cafe has been recognised as a finalist in the Campaign of the Year category, one of ten categories that will be decided at an awards ceremony in June. While a judging panel will determine the winners of these ten distinct categories, members of the public can have their say by voting for their favourite overall entry in the People’s Choice Award – by visiting scvo.scot/vote – before 5pm on Tuesday 20 May 2025.
Menopause Café are asking everyone to kindly vote for them. By doing so it will help to make menopause part of everyday conversation.
Rachel Weiss from Menopause Café charity said “We are thrilled to have been shortlisted in our category. We created the world’s first menopause awareness ribbon. No one had produced a menopause ribbon that people could buy and wear to say that they supported people going through menopause and that they were open to talking about menopause.
It was a fantastic campaign – over a period of 6 months we designed and sourced the ribbon, set up an online shop and ran a marketing campaign in conjunction with Perth & Kinross Council and Grainger PR. Written like this it doesn’t seem like much work, but it certainly was!
We launched the ribbon in October to coincide with Menopause Awareness Month and World Menopause Day on 18th October.
We’d love to win the People’s Choice Award – menopause will affect 50% of the population so we need to talk about it as part of a normal, everyday conversation. Please vote for us!”
The 2025 Scottish Charity Awards winners will be announced at a celebratory awards ceremony in Glasgow on 19 June 2025.
Anna Fowlie, chief executive of SCVO, said: “This year’s shortlisting was as difficult as ever with the phenomenal work of the voluntary sector really demonstrated in our entries. Our finalists represent the very best of Scottish society, making life-changing impacts every single day in their communities.
“SCVO is delighted that we can again highlight their work at our awards ceremony, which will take place in June. Now it is down to the public. Our People’s Choice vote is open now, giving you an opportunity to get involved and pick your favourite finalist from all of our categories. Don’t miss out!” To view the full list of finalists, visit the SCVO website.