Hello! 

So you may or may not know that Ive signed up to run the Great North Run.

"WHAT????????" I hear you cry!! Im a self confessed non-runner - I leave that to Ian, but decided I would try it this one and only time.

I found out about this local charity last year at Gateshead's Race for Life, where I saw a fellow runner wearing one of their t-shirts, and decided that I wanted to raise money for them.

Oesophageal and stomach cancers are the 5th commonest causes of cancer deaths in the UK, with Northern England and Scotland having the highest incidences of these cancers in Europe.

Sadly, my wonderful Mam, Jan, being one of them.

She was the fittest person I knew. Herself a runner, who'd also ran the Great North Run, and because of her fitness, the symptoms didn't show until it was too late. What should have been a lovely family Christmas, turned into a living nightmare when on December 15th 1999, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. A couple of months later, we were told she was terminal. We didn't want to know how long she had left. 

She died, aged 49, 8 months later on August 11th 2000, at the Marie Curie Hospice in Newcastle.

Nothing has been the same since. She is so incredibly missed by us all. She was wonderful.

So Im asking you to PLEASE SPONSOR ME running these 13 miles, to raise money to help someone else KEEP their mother/daughter/wife/sister/father/son/husband/brother.

Not only are you helping others, you're honouring a wonderful woman and making me proud and eternally grateful.

Please also take time to look at their website - http://www.oesophagoose.org

Thank you and wish me luck - Kate xxx

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