Marathon des Sables: Doctor saved by air ambulance to run 156-mile Sahara ultramarathon with team who treated her

Running partners: Chloe Baker and Dave McGovern have raised thousands and will join the London Air Ambulance team
Robin de Peyer6 April 2018

An NHS doctor running one of the world’s toughest ultra-marathons for the London Air Ambulance today said the spate of violent crime in the capital meant the service was “more vital than ever”.

Dr Chloe Baker, 32, right, is joining the ambulance’s team on the Marathon des Sables because they saved her life when she was knocked off her bicycle.

The former Cambridge University rower said its work inspired her to tackle the 156-mile race in the Sahara, which starts in Morocco tomorrow.

Paying tribute to the air ambulance staff, she said: “Being a flying doctor with the air ambulance represents the dream that all of us had when we became doctors. You’re attending the sickest of patients, and you’re performing a few very simple targeted defences, the results of which you can see immediately.”

Dr Baker, from Forest Gate and a trainee anaesthetist in the burns unit of Broomfield Hospital in Essex, is running with partner Dave McGovern, 33, a tsunami expert at South Bank University.

Gruelling: Competitors in the Marathon des Sables face 50C heat
AFP/Getty Images

The race is made up of six stages of up to 52 miles each over seven days in temperatures exceeding 50C. Dr Baker, who has run ultra-marathons of up to 37 miles, admitted she had “mixed feelings” about the race, described by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes as “hell on earth”.

“I like ultra-marathons because it doesn’t really matter how fast you do them, you can just be pleased with yourself for finishing them,” she said.

She and Mr McGovern have raised a “humbling” £6,500, with the team so far raising £72,000. The air ambulance requires £10 million a year and treats 2,000 patients a year. “With this horrible spate of killings that we’re seeing in London it’s more vital than ever,” she said.

Set for take-off: the London Air Ambulance Marathon des Sables team

Dr Baker was run over by a lorry while cycling to medical school in 2007. She said: “I was acutely aware that if I didn’t get to hospital I would die. We always joke that it was my abs of steel that saved my life, because the lorry did roll over my stomach. To this day, I can’t understand why it didn’t break my spine.”

Others in the race team include Dr Tom Konig, who treated Dr Baker, and chief pilot Neil Jeffers.

To donate to the London Air Ambulance team, visit justgiving.com/companyteams/laamds2018

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