September 2022....The race is nearly here! In 3.5 weeks time I will be taking to the streets of London after what feels like a lifetime of training. My legs are shot to pieces, my body feels completely broken and I've aged about 40 years but we are nearly there! One more long run this weekend and then the taper begins. The nerves are really kicking in now but my 'why' is remaining constant. 25 days to go...

May 2022....Attempt 4: No, it's not a joke, I really am still training for the London marathon I was due to run in April 2020. With just a few weeks to go until the marathon, the pandemic hit which meant attempt 1 was cancelled and rescheduled for October that year. Unfortunately, wave 2 of the pandemic then hit which called for another postponement. Fast forward to 2021 and all was looking well for an October start line when injury hit - a stress fracture to my leg and severe tendonitis in my hip. Disaster! However, all was not lost as the wonderful team at Alzheimer's Research UK allowed me to defer my place to 2022. 

So here we are now! Somewhat rested but older and terribly unfit, attempt number 4 is about to begin and I cannot tell you how badly I want to get to the start line this time! 

Thank you for your continued support and generous donations so far - it really does mean a lot to me. 

November 2019....Attempt 1: As I write this, I am sat at my kitchen table looking out over a cold, rainy November evening knowing I've got to get out there shortly and put the miles in, hoping that the sum of these snatched evening runs will add up to my legs withstanding 26.2 miles in April. Almost everyone's response when I say I am running the London Marathon has been 'why?!', but there's a reason for it. A very special reason: My Grandma. 

In 2017 we lost my Grandma after a relatively short battle with mixed dementia, however, as people who have experienced dementia will know, we said goodbye to the Grandma we knew long before her life ended, long before her time was up. Dementia has a cruel way of robbing someone of everything they were. This isn't just a person's memory, but everything they think, feel, say or do. Alzheimer's disease and dementia respects no boundaries as it kills the brain in almost random order leaving each sufferer with different side effects to the next. 

Dementia is currently the UK’s biggest killer. It's important to remember that this can happen to anyone, at any age, and there is currently no way to stop it. But it doesn't have to be this way. In the last few years alone the research into Alzheimer's and dementia illnesses has contributed to significant advances in a move towards prevention and treatment medicines. None of this research would have been possible without the money raised from fundraising events like the London Marathon. 

So Grandma, this one's for you. Let's go get it! 

A few dementia facts:

At £24 billion each year, dementia costs the UK economy more than cancer and heart disease combined but over two thirds of the care for Dementia patients is paid for by themselves or their family.

*         £20 pays for 1 hour of pioneering dementia research.

*         £100 could provide the tools for scientists to map 10,000 genes in minute detail, identifying targets for the development of new treatments.

*         £500 will cover the cost of a sensitive brain scan for a patient involved in a research study, tracking the effectiveness of new drug treatments, improving diagnosis and better understanding how diseases like Alzheimer’s wreak their havoc in the brain.

*         £1000 will pay for reagents, unique chemicals that are crucial for successfully growing cells in a laboratory ready for disease study

*         £2500 will allow researchers to buy synthetically made amyloid, to better understand this hallmark Alzheimer’s protein in the lab.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

The small print: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.