Last year, my mum Helen was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. No-one knows why she got it, but I suppose the 30 years of smoking didn't help.

All things considered, cancer in a loved one is tough but it has a silver lining. In those last 6 months I got to spend more quality time with her than I have in years, even though I live thousands of miles away. Death is inevitable and I'm grateful that I had a timeline to work with.

However, the last 2 weeks in hospital was a different story. Hospitals are horrible places and as will always happen, mistakes were made and her quality of life deteriorated. In the last few days, Sue Ryder offered to take her into one of their hospices to give her end of life care.

Even though she was only there for hours, they treated her with immense care and attention (and lots of morphine). The last words she said to me were "I'm a happy bunny".

I promised I would do something to support Sue Ryder. So here I am, soaking in the bath after my longest ever run 32km and now realising what I've signed up for, so any donation you could give would help another family going through the same thing.

But, even if you can't or don't want to donate, take a little time to spend quality time with your family. It's easy to forget that one day they might be gone and you'll miss them.