When I do the Great North Run this September, it will be a week short of two years since my close and loving family suffered the devastating loss of my mum to cancer aged just 64.

She was an amazing and irreplaceable mother, wife, daughter, grandmother, sister and aunt, and we all miss her terribly every day. She was very involved in charity work, particularly work with children, from teaching dyslexic Japanese children to helping refugee children globally. It was the value she placed on saving and helping children that first drew me to Anthony Nolan as a cause.

Anthony Nolan's groundbreaking and globally important work started the year I was born, 1974. That was when Shirley Nolan tried to save her son, critically ill with a rare blood disorder, by putting together the first ever bone marrow register in order to find him a donor. Tragically, Anthony died when he was just 8, but since then, so many children's lives, and thousands of adult lives, have been saved by the work that Anthony Nolan does.

Their work in collecting cord blood from mothers who have just delivered their babies is the latest revolutionary way that they are fighting against blood cancer and other life-threatening conditions.

Although we lost my mum to kidney cancer, not blood cancer, I know she would have been very moved both by the genesis of the charity in one mum's love for her child, and by the beautiful idea that with cord blood, birth can ward off death.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and I hope that you feel able to make a donation in honour of my mum's memory.