In October I am going to be running my first (and quite possibly last!) marathon to raise money for a charity that became extremely important to our family in 2009. At this time, my mother Angela (or 'Min' as she was known) was working as a doctor at St Margaret's Hospice in Yeovil. She was compassionate, sensitive and wise which made her a wonderful palliative care doctor and much loved member of staff. But above all she was a totally beloved wife and mother to me and my two sisters. 

In the spring of 2009 we were devastated to learn that Min had a terminal illness. She soon became a patient at St Margaret's herself. Although she did make it home for periods of time, she spent much of her short illness at the hospice, and died there on 30th July 2009. 

It must have been very hard for the staff there to look after someone they had worked with and were so fond of, but they did it beautifully. The hospice allowed Min's final weeks to be as good as they could have been through the care provided to her, but also to the whole family. In the context of a life-limiting illness, the quality and comfort of a person's remaining time is so important, and that is why palliative care and hospices are absolutely vital. Since qualifying as a doctor in 2010 and working in various NHS hospitals ever since, I feel more strongly about this all the time. 

St Margaret's Hospice Care needs to raise around £9.5 million a year to continue caring for people in Somerset in their homes and in the hospices in Yeovil and Taunton. The charity reports that this income is increasingly hard to generate. In fact it looks likely that the Yeovil site where Min worked and died won't be able to sustain inpatient beds in the near future due to "staffing challenges....and an increasingly unsustainable financial position". (You can read more about the challenges and proposed changes to the service here: https://www.st-margarets-hospice.org.uk/information-2019) 

So in the year of the 10th anniversary of Min's death it seemed a good time to try and raise some money for this incredibly important charity. I must credit Frances, one of my sisters, for the idea of running for Min and St Margaret's; but since Frances is expecting a baby soon she's been let off! I am very lucky to have an extremely supportive (and very fit) husband to run with. Although I've been running for some years, I've never become any good at it, and a marathon will be a huge challenge! Training is hard, but also really enjoyable, and has made me feel extremely lucky to be fit and healthy and able to run. 

Thank you for reading all this. Richard and I, my family and St Margaret's will be really grateful for anything you feel you can donate.