I wrote this on the night of my mums funeral. It is my application for the marathon to The Alzheimer’s Society:

I buried my mum today. She was 70. Her death certificate says she died of dementia but, in reality, she died of exhaustion. Exhaustion from a 7 year battle against the cruelest disease that I’ve ever had experience of. She battled with bravery, determination and grace.

As the disease took her cognitive function, her ability to recognise her family and in the last few years her dignity, I took my own journey alongside her. Losing a little bit of her every day. As a family, we held on to the moments of lucidity and cried, often in private, at the times when we recognised that a little bit more of her had gone. We took the difficult decision to put her in a home after she fell at the start of lockdown. Lockdown took many precious moments from us as a family. We couldn’t visit her in hospital, we had many distressing visits through a window of a care home and all of which stole months of time that we knew we wouldn’t get back - the lack of familiarity made the deterioration happen faster and we could only imagine, through the window, how she was feeling. The home she was in at that time could not care for her and we had to move her - 19 homes said no, we can’t care for her. Eventually, we found a specialist care home but, over recent weeks, it made me realise how little we know about Alzheimer’s and how to care for the patients and support their families.

The 9 days before my mum died were the hardest of my life. Her pain was never really under control and my 2 sisters and I watched for 9 days feeling helpless - holding her hand, signing, praying and doing what we could to make her comfortable. But, really, we were praying for her to die. Leave this earth and be free from the pain, suffering, lack of control to be in a place where she could be , at last free.

My mum was a nurse. She wanted to give her body to medical science but I couldn’t make that happen. What I can do though is raise funds to find a cause for this hideous disease so that others, including me, don’t have to go through what my beautiful mum had to endure.

My mum died on 24th March 2023. My grandma died in exactly the same circumstances - of Alzheimer’s - on 25th March 2013 - I don’t want to be the next!

I applied to run this year, it, the universe must have known that I would not have been able to run - 4 weeks after the passing of my mum and 4 days before her funeral but next year, I’m determined will be different.

We raised almost £400 from the collection in memory of my mum. Let me raise much more!

PLEASE

Elizabeth - daughter of Christine Van Rooyen (1952 - 2023)