I am running the 2026 Brighton Marathon for my lovely boyfriend Theo who we lost to suicide at the beginning of September.

Losing a loved one to suicide is dark and confusing and absolutely heartbreaking , that is why I am raising money for Grassroots Suicide Prevention who provide suicide prevention resources and support for people struggling with suicidal thoughts.

Whilst we lost Theo to suicide, that is not what defines him or what we remember him by.

We remember him by his kindness and gentleness; his completely un judgemental nature (even in the face of my very questionable clothing purchases); his camp dance moves and his constant references of It’s always sunny quotes. We remember him by his loyalty to Manchester United- when we first started dating I asked him if he would ever support a different football team and he answered with a quote from Eric Cantone ‘You can change your wife, your politics, religion. But you CAN’T change your football team’ (I never dared to ask him again after that). We also remember him by his love for silly slogan t-shirts and his mahoosive collection of vintage football shirts of very niche teams of which he would throughly research the history of on Wikipedia. And of course we remember him by his incredible ability of making the most bizarre and animated facial expressions which (much to my despair) he loved to make whenever I wanted to take a cute couples picture together.

Theo treated everyone he met with so much love and he cared so deeply, sometimes it seemed as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. The two years that I knew Theo were without a doubt the happiest and brightest two years of my life, life without Theo feels a lot dimmer.

I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have known Theo but I wish we hadn’t lost him so suddenly, he should still be here. He has had such a strong impact on the person that I am today and I feel forever grateful to have known someone as kind and funny and lovely as him. I will be thinking of him when I’m slugging along the race !

I love you Theo !