Approximately four years ago I lost my mother, Sandra Harrington, to breast cancer, six months after my partner Tom lost his mother to ovarian cancer.  This meant that our eldest son, then aged two, had precious little time with either of his grannies, and neither our daughter nor our youngest son ever got to meet these intelligent, strong and loving women.

This is not an unusual story, but still barely a day passes when I do not feel their loss, so I will be hauling myself over the 5k Pretty Muddy Assault Course in Finsbury Park in mid September in their memory, and in the hope that breakthroughs in detection and treatment can be made that will mean that my children's generation will not live in fear of this illness.

I'll be posting some charming pics of the big day here, so you'll know I've stayed the course .

With thanks,

Mary-Anne

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