Losing someone you love is hard but imagine losing someone you love when you are a child or young person. How you deal with the feelings and emotions of your world quite literally being turned upside down will affect you for the rest of your life

2023 was a tough year as I lost 2 friends who I was an university with in the space of 6 months. One of those losses I found out about as I was pulling on my trainers to do almost the last run of 2023 on the day before New Years Eve. It hit hard as I knew that the sadness I was feeling was nothing like the feelings of Kath’s family, friends and most importantly her 2 children.

For Katherine’s children (aged 10 and 5) their Mum had been ill for 2 weeks after she was rushed to hospital on December 12, 2023, with hydrocephalus which developed into an extremely aggressive form of pneumococcal meningitis. Despite her brave fight and showing small signs of improvement, her brain was severely affected by meningitis. She passed away on December 29th.

Thankfully there are experts on hand to help young people in the form of the charity Winston’s Wish and in an effort to honour her memory her daughters fundraised over £5k in a very short period of time because of the help they were able to receive

When I donated, one fact struck me…

£26 supports a young person with resources to help them remember the person they’ve lost including creating a memory box

26 is an important number for another reason, it’s the number of miles of a marathon. I already had a self funded place for New York Marathon in 2024 (and this will be the second marathon in 3 weeks!) That means literally every penny you give will go straight to the charity, not a penny of it has gone to pay for the marathon place

So for that reason, I want to support children just like Kath’s 2 youngsters and run for them, their Mum, her wife and will carry them in my heart and on my shirt around the streets of New York in November 2024. Anything you give can help so thank you for once again supporting me

The official bit about the charity:

Every day across the UK, children and young people lose someone significant to them. The death of someone important can be the most traumatic experience a child or young person will ever face.

Winston’s Wish relies on voluntary charitable donations to support children and their families following the death of a parent, sibling or important person. Since 1992, they have helped tens of thousands of bereaved children and young people and, with your help, can help tens of thousands more during the most difficult time of their lives.