When I first signed up to run the London Marathon in 2020, I couldn't possibly foresee that the world would change completely.

That my world would change completely.

My dad was fully behind my Marathon attempt and as we stared down the barrel of his shocking cancer diagnosis in April 2020, I trotted around 26 laps of his garden instead of the 26 miles around London and he cheered me on proudly.

I never for one moment believed he wouldn't survive. That I would have to negotiate the rest of my life without him.

My dad passed away on the 4th July 2020.

The only blessing, we decided in the depths of our grief, was that my mother would never feel the pain and loss of losing him.

Mum passed away on the 23rd May 2021.

So, I am not just running the 26.2 gruelling miles for Mum and for all those families like mine who have endured the hideous and prolonged pain of dementia. I am running for my dad too. Truly, the greatest of all men. 

My hero.

Thank you to everyone who supported me back when training first started at the beginning of 2020. Before my world fell apart.

Training has now recommenced.... I am a little older, a little fatter and a lot sadder. But alongside my very amazing friend Liz, we will do it.

We will do it for my parents. 

I will forever be grateful that they were mine.

Alzheimer’s Society is transforming the landscape of dementia forever.Until the day we find a cure, we will create a society where those affected by dementia are supported and accepted, able to live in their community without fear or prejudice.