Hello! I’ve decided to run my first marathon in 2025, and I’ve been lucky enough to get a place to run the London Marathon, an actual dream come true! I would like to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society, because of my Grandad who has recently passed away after suffering with dementia for 8 years.

Anyone who has a loved one that is or has suffered from dementia knows it is a heart breaking experience to witness. Dementia can affect people in many different ways, but a lot of the time it slowly takes parts of that person away. For my Grandad, I felt like I started to grieve the parts of him that got lost as the disease became more apparent. You learn to understand them in a new light and I soon realised that just being in my Grandad’s presence, whether he recognised me that day or not, was enough. Sometimes you can love someone quietly, and gently, it doesn’t have to acknowledged. My Grandad’s life before passing wasn’t an easy ride for my family, my nan cared for him and was house bound for months while he became fully dependent upon her and regular carer visits along with my mum and auntie/uncle to help support my nan with caring for my Grandad up until the last moments of his life.

Growing up myself and my brothers were really close with my Nan and Grandad - we have some really core memories of our time with them and our childhood wouldn’t have been the same without them so heavily involved.

Through my grandad, and my mum (who I regularly think shares a lot of my grandad’s qualities!) I have learnt to have a deep appreciation and sense of peace found in nature, and for animals great and small. That’s saving the worm off the pathway to stop it being trod on, that’s putting a tired bee on a flower in the sun, that’s slowing down in your car to let the bird finish crossing the road.

He also taught me to look up once in a while… if it was ever dark I would listen to him point out star constellations and tell me about the phase of the moon, and how the moon controls the tide. Sometimes I would pretend I’d forgotten so he could tell me again…! This also taught me to slow down and ‘smell the roses’ if you like. To take in the scenery, absorb the sun on my face, breathe in the fresh air, watch the tree move in the wind. Although I’m not sure this can be fully blamed on my grandad for me being so slow sometimes - sorry family and friends lol.

Anyway, running this marathon won’t bring him back but it will give me a physical challenge, will promise me time outdoors in nature (or darkness and rain in the winter ahead!), and will promise me quiet time to think about him (maybe more on my ‘easy’ runs!), to process everything, grieve him and raise money for a charity that now lies fond for me.

I wish that as we age, dementia can become curable, that we can find research that one day might beat it, even partly. I hope that my contribution can help towards one less person, one less family or friend, being lost to dementia.

Let’s run!