For the love of Lola - Darlington yoga teacher raises thousands for cancer research

HARDLY a day goes by when Karen Thursby isn’t sharing her passion for yoga somewhere in the North-East – and her beautiful mother, Lola, is never far from her thoughts.

It was from Lola that she inherited her love for yoga and, in the five years since her mum passed away, Karen has been harnessing its power to raise thousands of pounds for cancer research.

So far, she has generated £11,000 through an annual outdoor yoga event, and she is busy planning her next fundraiser for the autumn.

“Everyone loved my mum, she was such a special person, and this feels like the perfect way to go on remembering her,” she says.

Lola came to the UK from Nigeria in the 1950s, trained as a nurse and went on to be a midwife. She met Alan, an architect working for Durham County Council, and when they had two daughters, Karen and Tania, they did everything they could to raise them with the traditional values of Lola’s homeland.

“The biggest thing Mum taught us was how important it is to be kind. I once asked her why she fell in love with my Dad, because she was very good-looking and could have married anyone, and he was a very quiet, unassuming man.

“She told me he was a very, very kind man and that kindness is the most important thing. She lost her own mum when she was just two or three years old, and she would have dealt with all sorts of difficulties because of her race when she came to this country, but she was always just so positive and so giving.”

As the girls grew up, Lola’s focus was firmly on her family. She was a talented cook and crafter – she would bake, knit, crochet, and embroider; skills she would pass on to her daughters. She also found time to run a Brownies group.

In fact, Lola was so popular as a Brownie leader, the Guide Association would later change its rules around the retirement age for leaders, just so they didn’t lose her.

It was when her girls were young that Lola also took up yoga, and when Karen grew up, her mum encouraged her to take it up. They attended classes together, and Karen was inspired to train as an instructor.

“It was really interesting when I started learning about the philosophy of yoga,” she recalls. “It’s not all just poses and breathing – one of the principles behind it all is this idea of kindness, and it really tied back to what my Mum raised me to believe, and what drew her to my dad.”

It was while Karen was training to be an instructor in 2016 that Lola was diagnosed with bile duct cancer. It was a relatively uncommon form of cancer and already well-established, so doctors told the family that the outlook wasn’t good, and Lola began palliative treatment.

“I was very, very close to my mum,” says Karen. “We talked a lot, and when she was diagnosed, we talked about the cancer and what could be done. A cure wasn’t a possibility by this stage, so we decided that we would try to raise funds to help improve cancer treatments, and maybe help find a cure for others.”

Cancer Research UK was the obvious charity to support and Karen decided her fundraising would combine the three things Lola loved most after her family: yoga, baking, and gardens.

When she qualified as an instructor, she set about organising her charity yoga classes, and named her business Alola Yoga as a combination of her parents’ names.

“It was only much later that a friend pointed out that ‘Alola’ actually means ‘tranquil’ in Sanskrit, so I really had unknowingly picked the perfect name,” she smiles.

Karen launched her first charity outdoor yoga session in the grounds of Neasham Abbey, near Darlington, later that year, complete with a fundraising cake stall. Though she hoped that her mum would be the guest of honour, it wasn’t to be. Lola passed away shortly before the event took place. She was 82.

Since then, Karen, who was brought up in Chester-le-Street but now lives in Darlington, has run her charity yoga annually. In the nearly five years since her mum’s death, Karen has donated all the fees from each session to the charity, and students help organise raffles, cake stalls, and craft stalls at each event, which all add to the charity pot.

It’s no stretch to say that her passion, and the generosity of her students, has been of huge benefit to the cancer charity, and Karen puts the success of her fundraising campaign down to the word her mum taught her to treasure above all others.

“Kindness,” she says with a smile. “Kindness is the most important thing.”

n Karen’s next outdoor yoga event will take place in September this year at Dinsdale Golf Club. For more information or to book a place, visit www.alola.yoga

BACK on the speaking circuit, it was lovely to bump into legendary Teesside Gazette journalist Malcolm Race during a talk to the Retired Teesside Magistrates’ Association at Middlesbrough Golf Club.

Malcolm, who’ll be 96 in June, joined the Gazette straight from Middlesbrough High School in August 1942.

He spent two years as a junior before being called up to join the Army at 18 and used his journalistic skills to work on a military magazine called Parade.

He rejoined the Gazette after the war in 1948 and, by the time I did my work experience there in 1980, he was well into the veteran category, having covered the courts before becoming the paper’s local government reporter.

Malcolm, pictured below, stayed at the Gazette until 1989, also served as a magistrate for 35 years, and I’m delighted to say he remains as sharp as a tack.

FINALLY, it was a joy and an honour to host the Mayor’s Darlington Primary Schools Contest on Friday night.

Congratulations to the winners, Reid Street Primary, on their brilliant performance of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing.

And thank you to everyone who attended for remembering the families in the Ukraine who are being torn apart by Vladimir Putin’s senseless war.

Mayor of Darlington, Cyndi Hughes, and a group of children lit a candle that burned in front of the stage throughout the show as a tribute to those under merciless bombardment.

Let’s never forget how lucky we are that our children can live in a safe, happy place.