We’ve never walked a marathon, let alone two. But then we’ve also never marked mum’s birthday without her.

And so, we’ve decided. It’s going to be two sisters. In two days. Over two marathons. Between two cities. And the challenge? Walking from Brighton to London for our beloved mum, Sonia.

Everyone who knew mum understood her mission in life was to help people through charity, with love and with empathy. She also loved a mission that involved a good walk! She loved to be outside and to walk everywhere. With her big smile and her tiny rucksack she was in her element.

On Mum’s birthday, this 12th June, we will begin our walk, with big smiles and tiny rucksacks, from Brighton – the bohemian city Mum so loved – to her home in London.

Why?

We are walking to remember the remarkable Sonia Douek, our incredible Mum, in every step. Yet, we know we can do more than just walk – we can fill our hearts with unconditional love and charity, just like mum always did, and we can pace great strides because we need to. We will walk towards greater national awareness as to why our Mum no longer walks beside us. We want to help confront the silence around a disease with the lowest survival rate of any women’s cancer – ovarian cancer; currently a cancer with no cure.

We are walking to bring awareness of a diagnosis that could come too late for us, for someone else we care about, for a friend, for your friend, for any woman…for every woman. We look to support more robust research and safer treatments, but foremost, to tackle this disease at its core – early intervention.

We will walk 85km over two days in June to raise money for the UK’s leading ovarian cancer charity, Target Ovarian Cancer:http://www.targetovariancancer.org.uk/.

Please sponsor our walk. With your generous support we can contribute to research that will develop a national screening programme to catch ovarian cancer in the early stages. With one, non-invasive test, so many more lives can be saved.

With love, endless thanks and blessings to you all,

Michelle and Naomi xxx

‘One of us can change a bit, but put our hearts and minds together and we can change the world.’