FOR Phil Holbrook, March 21 has a double significance. 

It was two years to the day he was released from hospital, where he spent two weeks in a coma following a car crash in which he lost his wife Sally. 

And it was also the day he reached the remarkable landmark of completing his 50thParkrun.

Since the crash, on the outskirts of Hartlepool on the A689 in which he broke 30 bones in his body, Holbrook has refused to be beaten by adversity and has been a regular park runner to help him get back to good health and fitness. 

Phil suffered including 20 broken ribs, six breaks to his pelvis, shoulder blade and collar bone fractures, a severed coccyx, broken bones in his left arm, two spinal breaks and nerve damage to his left side.

Doctors feared he would never walk again, let alone get back to pounding the streets running, and in the weeks after the crash, he could only communicate by squeezing the hands of friends, family and medics.

He said: “When I left hospital, medical experts insisted that I go home with two crutches and a wheelchair! With the continuing love and support of many people - and they all know who they are - I have got to a place that, quite frankly, I never thought that I would reach.’’

A regular competitor in the Great North Run over the years –he completed 23 before his injuries and finished last year’s in 2 hours 43 mins – his first Parkrun was at Sedgefield on January 4 last year in a time of 41:52.

Now a regular at his hometown event in Hartlepool, he boasts a personal best of 30:44.

His first 12 months back running he complied an amazing list: 42 parkruns, Great North Run, Benidorm Half Marathon, York 10k, Middlesbrough Riverside 10k, Great North 10k, Tees Pride 10k, Miles For Men RoadRace and the Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile road race.

With the Great North Run place confirmed for this year, Phil and his friends under the banner of Team Sally Holbrook aim to top last year’s fund-raising amount of £5,050.50 all in aid of the Hartlepool & District Hospice.

He said: “Getting back running was always a target even when I was lying in bed but how realistic that was I didn’t know.

“But I just decided that I had to fight. I knew my life was going to be so different but you just have to adapt. I don’t have the same life, but I have a life.

“There’s not a day that goes by when I didn’t think of Sally, but I could either crumble or get on.

“I decided to get on.

“Running has been so important for me and there’s a great camaraderie amongst my group of friends and colleagues who run with me. 

“Sally was a big supporter of the Hartlepool Hospice and we hope to keep her memory alive by helping such a worthy cause.’’

He completed last week’s Hartlepool Parkrun with his regular running friends, including Paul Smith – who he joined last week in running 30 miles around a centre circle of a football pitch in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. 

To donate to Team Sally Holbrook visit gnr15.everydayhero.com/uk/teamsallyholbrook