Thank you so much for visiting the London Marathon fundraising page of Sian, Jon and Nick! We are running for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation in memory of our dear sister, wife and friend; Alisha.
Leesh, as she was known to many, loved a sporting challenge, having racked up multiple half marathons and triathlons, a three peaks challenge alongside international caps for the Welsh lacrosse team. The 2015 London Marathon was next on her hit list, winning a place in the ballot just a few months before her diagnosis with incurable, non-smoker's lung cancer in December 2014.
Quite literally never a defeatist, Leesh had to defer her place, adamant to get her strength up to complete 2016's race despite being told she'd undergo chemotherapy for life.
But, on February 23rd 2016, this opportunity was taken away from her, so now, we've decided to take it on instead.
And this is where we need your help...we want to raise as much money as possible to help fund more research into the UK's most fatal cancer. Lung cancer takes more lives every year than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. Never having smoked, Alisha fell within 10% of lung cancer patients, an area the charity are conducting truly exciting research and care into. The symptoms are easily overlooked, so we also want to encourage people with persistent coughs, breathlessness or any of the other symptoms shown on Roy Castle's 'Symptoms Man' below to get checked out sooner rather than later!
As the "running one" of both her sibling and matrimonial pairings, it's safe to say that Leesh would never believe that Sian or Jon would be running a marathon! And the competitive streak in her would absolutely be wanting to pull on her trainers to try and beat close friend and second-time London Marathon runner, Nick!
As corny as it sounds, Leesh's no-nonsense attitude to any challenge before her is continually inspiring us to keep pounding the pavements throughout our training. Which, coupled with her unforgettable smiles throughout her own trials, will hopefully help us smash our combined target which will fund 200 hours of research!
Sadly, we know this won't be the first such fundraising page you've read , but hopefully we can help to make it one of the last. We are genuinely so grateful for any donation you're able to share, and hope we can do you, Leesh, and the charity, proud on the day!
All our thanks,
Sian, Jon and Nick
#roysrunners
You can also donate by texting 'ROYY99 £10' to 70070