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I signed up to complete the Great North Run around Stuart’s 36th birthday everyone should be celebrating but he…we will never be able to do so. You see, just a year ago my husband, best friend, soul mate passed away from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Stuart Rasbeary, the most inspiring person I have ever met, was a strapping young man in the British Army. He signed up when he was 20 and after experiencing tours in Afghanistan, Kenya and Norway continued to love his profession, rising in rank from a Trooper to a Staff Sergeant in just 14 years. We lived life to the full ever since we got together 18 years ago and one thing we can always say is we have no regrets. But after a severe nosebleed and a chronic sore throat he reluctantly went to A and E and our lives were never the same again. 

Throughout his treatment his mantra was 

“It is, what it is,” 

and 

“We can only do what we are told by the doctors.” 

He stuck to everything by the letter, but after just 8 months of treatment, we were told there was nothing more the doctors could do. We had, for so long, been isolated down in Southampton (where he was based). We always thought he would get back to work, but now with no hope and unsure of how long we had, We rushed back home, to Yorkshire, to enjoy the time we had left. 

It’s hard to imagine by someone not put in that situation how special and enjoyable those 8 weeks were, but Stuart was determined to make the most of what time he had left. We managed to see all the places we had grown up together and cherished as young teenage sweethearts. The weather was kind and we got to be in the great Yorkshire Dales whenever he was well enough. But of course the doctors were right. On May 22nd 2017 my amazing husband passed away. 

Right up until the end he cared more about how upsetting it was for us, his family and friends, rather than what was to become of him. I hope to complete the Great North Run purely to make him proud and to help, in a small way, in preventing others to have to go through what Stuart did. I have to live on saying 

“It is what it is.”

and continue to live my life without regrets.

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