Sarah Bennett battled cancer for 3 years before losing her fight for life on August 22nd last year. The day before, having already brought her wedding forward by 12 months, she married Josh, the love of her life, in a bedside service at Leighton Hospital, Crewe.

Living life to the full and refusing to give in to the disease, Sarah raised thousands of pounds for a number of cancer charities after her diagnosis with Triple Negative Breast Cancer. "Made for Life" was one of the charities that Sarah chose to support by being photographed for their 2013 calendar - she made the front cover. Made for Life provide support, social occasions and holistic therapies to people who have been diagnosed with or are recovering from cancer.

Before she died, Sarah had talked about setting up a charity to raise funds for research into Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Sarah's husband and family have carried out her wishes and Sarah's charity "Shine Bright Foundation", has now been launched in Sarah's honour to support the provision of ongoing direct research into, and equipment for, Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer is  a recently discovered cancer that has been found to account for around 15% of breast cancers. Some commonly used breast cancer treatments such as hormone therapy or Herceptin just don't work for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and much more resarch is needed to establish the best way to treat it. 

So that's why we were all running on 23rd March, 2014 - Sarah and I ran in the Liverpool Half Marathon while Rachel pounded the streets in the Wilmslow Half Marathon on the same day... All to help Sarah Bennett's family and friends carry out her wishes through the Shine Bright Foundation.

And we did it... 39.3 miles between us!  

There was a great atmosphere at both events with lots of support from the crowds and race marshalls using the name printed on our race number attachment to shout out personal encouragement!

Rachel faced hail and rain soon after the 10:30 start in Wilmslow and despite feeling under the weather managed to achieve a personal best time. Go Rachel!

Sarah and I had to run in what felt like a wind tunnel for the last 4 miles alongside the open waters of the River Mersey. It was horrible, such hard work and a real psychological as well as physical battle. Knowing why we were there was the only thing that kept me going. I was determined not to stop and walk; I didn’t want to let anybody down… I crossed the finishing line in tears, but my first ever half marathon was in the bag! 

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