Welcome to Holly and Sarah's JustGiving page!

This crazy challenge was inspired by our beautiful friend, Katy Joyce, who passed away on 17th January 2018 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.  Katy was a colleague and a very dear friend.  She was a police officer who dedicated her career to child protection and going above and beyond to provide support to the victims she dealt with.  Katy became poorly in July 2017 and was soon told that she would not recover.  During this very difficult time she received support from Maggie's Centre in Nottingham and it was clear that this was a great comfort to her. She was also very impressed with the free lunch! 

Sarah and I have written down a few words about what this means to us.

Holly:

A marathon is something I'd always said I wanted to do but like a lot of things in life, I came up with excuses why I couldn't do it. Then I found out how poorly Katy was and running became a coping mechanism; time out from every day life to process and grieve. Running helped me through a very difficult time and it still does. I still miss her every day and have many wonderful memories of a beautiful, kind, intelligent and feisty woman! Katy once said "Don't put anything off! Do it as soon as you can!".  Not entirely sure she meant a marathon but here we are!!!!

Sarah:

So why do a marathon! Why juggle home stuff, being Mums, work stuff, try to have a social life and a running plan that is likely to make or break us! Well for me it was about supporting a friend, going into it as a team and also proving to myself that I can do something I didn’t think I was capable of. It’s about friendship and what it has taught me...to be strong when needed, to lean on someone when I need to and to be united in something that ultimately brings you closer.

My good friend Holly asked me to support her in fundraising for a charity that supported a very dear person to her, Katy Joyce. I knew Katy as a work colleague but in fact she was more than that to me, and much more to Holly. Katy was a tough cookie, she would fight for her cause and be forthright in her opinions, and wouldn’t accept defeat. She was the same when she became ill, she made jokes, she refused to let it rule her until she had no fight left. Knowing Katy and all that she endured in the last months of her life has made me and Holly determined to do this, determined to give it our all...we often think of Katy as we run, as we hurt, as we feel like giving up. We hear her joking and probably having a giggle at us in all our sweaty glory and we hear her telling us not to give in. More than that though, we think about Katy’s strength of character and it makes us think that we can at least run these 26 miles! Katy inspires us and we hope our story will inspire you to donate and contribute to a charity that helped our friend.

We all know someone who has been affected by cancer in some way and it is centres such as Maggie's who provide free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends.  Their centres are built on the grounds of NHS hospitals and their professional staff are on hand to provide this support.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

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.