Blackpool mum goes viral on TikTok after finishing Beaverbrooks 10k with 11-week-old baby daughter

A video of Megan McWhinney crossing the finish line at the Beaverbrooks Blackpool 10k with her 11-week-old baby daughter Fern has gone viral on TikTok.

Megan, who signed up for the 10k race when she was six months pregnant in the belief that it would be a good way to get fit again after giving birth, says that daughter Fern has ‘brought so much joy and fulfilment to our lives.’

“I signed up to the 10k back when I was 6 months pregnant, thinking it’d be a great way to get back into fitness,” said Megan. “Anyways, motherhood began and of course I didn’t have time to go and train all the time as I’d envisaged. Then, I get an email two weeks before the event was due to start and thought ‘there is no way I can do that with zero training’.

“Three days before the event I decided actually I do feel healthy enough to run the 10k,” she said. “I’ve ran a few 10ks before for charity and, back in October 2022, I ran a half marathon and raised £1,500+ for Cancer Research,” said Megan. “But I’d trained for those… I (stupidly) didn’t train for this, so it was a hard run!

“The heat made it nearly unbearable as well,” Megan said. “At 6k I was seriously cursing myself but I was determined to run every step of the way. A couple of people had told me I wouldn’t be able to do this run with it being so soon after the birth (and it isn’t advised for everyone to do this so soon after their birth) but for me, I felt really good so I decided to go for it!

“I had a really positive birthing experience and was up and out with Fern on day three, walking around in The Lake District (people thought I was mad, I’m sure).”

Megan posted the video of her and Fern crossing the finish line together to her TikTok page and has since gone viral, with over 105,000 people liking the video.

“When I got to the end of the 10k, I was hoping to see my friends with Fern and my friend Jess mouthed ‘Do you want to take her?’,” said Megan. “So it was a really spontaneous decision to take her and gently jog over the line with her. It captured just the most beautiful, authentic moment between me and Fern.

“I shared my video on Instagram and felt it was right to address other new mums by saying ‘to any new mums who look at this, you’re also doing an amazing job and you all have my most utmost respect for the job you’re doing each and every day’,” said Megan. “I have lots of fellow new mums on social media and I didn’t want anyone to see the post and feel in anyway that my achievement meant their efforts as a mum/woman were anything less than amazing.”