Hello friends...

On 26th April 2026, I'll be taking on the daunting challenge of running over 26 miles around London in memory of my beautiful mum, Carol, whom we lost, aged only 70. Taken too soon, and sadly before meeting her little grandson, Elis - her absence is felt every day 💔

Mum was my greatest influence and biggest cheerleader and was always focussed on enjoying life. She was the warmest and kindest (and smiliest!) of ladies - a friend to all. Although this past year has been incredibly tough, as a family, we do our best to keep living as she would want us to do, and this challenge feels very much a chance to celebrate her memory - in London, a city she loved!

Mum spent the last 2 months of her life being looked after in the Inpatient Unit at Farleigh Hospice. The wonderful care given to mum and the kindness and compassion shown to our entire family during these dark times will never be forgotten 💛 I now have this opportunity to recognise the way Farleigh looked after mum and us so brilliantly and to give back in a small way.

Throughout mum's journey at the Hospice, the staff were exceptional - nothing was ever too much trouble and they even managed to organise a wedding for mum and Brian in her final weeks - a very special and memorable day. However, I learned that to provide these vital services, their running costs are over £21,000 a day, which is huge!! Like many hospices, they are heavily reliant on fundraising to meet these daily costs.

So, to help Farleigh support other families like ours in their time of need, my mission over the past 7 months has been to train LOTS, raise LOTS for the Hospice and importantly, to try to have fun along the way as mum would want!

I ran the London Marathon in 2009 (pic above!) whilst mum cheered from the crowds...fast forward 16 years and 3 babies later, I'm older, greyer, maybe wiser, possibly fitter, but definitely more determined (stubborn) to complete this challenge and to raise lots of money for this wonderful charity.

One final thing! Mum was an excellent cake baker. She would always bake for us, friends, and local community groups - her Victoria sponge was a delight like no other! In her honour, for every £500 received in sponsorship, I am pledging to bake a cake to donate to a local cause. I wonder how many we can get to?!

So that's my story...thanks for reading and if you're able to donate any amount to my fundraising efforts that would be hugely appreciated.

My training and cake updates will be on here just in case you'd like to see them ;-)

Big love,

Claire 💛

#26in26

🧡 TROUPE FITNESS’ CHARITY FUNDRAISERS 🧡

Thank you so SO much for supporting our ‘Morning of Musicals’ event on Sunday 23rd November. Total raised was £1000 which is completely fantastic!

And a HUGE thanks for supporting our mega 'Troupeathon' on Friday 20th March - felt SO good to be dancing/sweating together again, and we also raised a wonderful £600!🧡🧡🧡