Woman's Great North Run challenge despite genetic illness that could have killed her as a baby

Frances Smailes is to run this year's Great North Run12:10, 28 Jul 2026Frances Smailes is taking on the Great North Run more than 30 years on from being diagnosed with an often lethal genetic condition(Image: Children's Foundation / Handout)A Northumberland woman who almost died as a tot due to a rare genetic condition is now set to take on the Great North Run for a Tyneside charity she first supported more than 30 years ago. Frances Smailes took her first fundraising steps for The Children's Foundation as part of the Yellow Brick Road campaign - which itself was in aid of newborn genetic screening.‌That was back in 1994, when the Morpeth-raised woman was just a toddler. It came after she had been born with a devastating genetic condition - Medium-Chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency (M