In September 2015 our good friend Luke was taken away from us - I say taken away
because that’s exactly what happened. Luke lived in Berlin, and whilst walking
home after a night out was shot and killed, and to this day I still can’t
believe the turn of events that unfolded that night. Another sad twist to this
event was the fact that his mum, Rita, decided to take her own life towards the
end of 2019, she could no longer live in this world due to her broken heart.
Honestly, as I write this tears are filling up, it’s just so sad and
unbelievable.

Two years ago, two pals and I decided to
run a Marathon in Luke’s name for a charity called  ‘Murdered Abroad’ ** .
A month before the race David and I were invited by ‘Murdered Abroad’ to spend
a day with them, to see what they do and how the money that we raised would be
spent. To this day it’s one of the most humbling days that I have ever
experienced. We spent it in a room with nine other similar families, all of
whom had very different stories to tell, every single one of them was
completely and utterly shocking, all giving updates as to where they were with
their cases.

Luke’s mum and dad, Rita and Phil attended the event, theirs was story we had heard and relayed so many times in the years before hand, but the hardest part was hearing it coming from Rita and Phil themselves, the emotion and pain in their voices remains with me. I won’t go into each and every other case, but I will always remember sitting opposite a man and thought to myself I had never seen so much sadness in another man’s eyes, this was over two decades after he had lost his daughter at the hands of another individual in a foreign country

That evening, Rita, Phil, Dave and I went out in Cardiff, we drank lots of wine, ate lots of food, and reminisced about the beautiful Luke, a night I will never forget for the rest of my life, and that is something I’ll always have a huge debt of gratitude to Murdered Abroad for, a day and night that will be with me forever, with a mixture of emotions.

Fast Forward to 2020 – and I have now decided to run an Ultra Marathon, a gruelling 32 mile trail race. I am by no means underselling a normal marathon, but thousands of people entered the Manchester marathon when we did it last, but for this Ultramarathon under 200 people will enter and I very much doubt all will finish. It will be a very lonely event, not many crowds spurring you on, no other participants passing or being passed. I’ll be spurred on knowing that I'll be doing it for Murdered Abroad and in memory of Rita and Luke, and also thinking of Phil and the others in the room that I met in March 2018. The event will take place on 21st March 2020, between now and then I will be alcohol free and I’ll probably run over 700km in training and preparation for the event. 

Please dig deep but also remember every little helps, this is a charity that is not funded by the government , nor even a commonly heard of charity. In a selfish way I kind of wish I hadn’t come across them, but now I have I intend to try and help them as much as I possibly can.

**Murdered Abroad was founded by, and is
run by, people who have lost loved ones to murder or manslaughter abroad, they
all understand the trauma and the practical difficulties that follow such
tragedy. They are an action group,
working for change within the UK to improve the assistance families receive
from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, UK Police, and Coroners.