On April 17th 2024 I will be turning 50.

I have never been a fan of big celebrations where the attention is all on me and was concerned about what I would do about my fast approaching 50th birthday. After some thought I decide that instead of a big party where I would probably feel uncomfortable, I would instead do 50 things for my 50th. These would be various smaller activities that gave me pleasure and were more meaningful.

As many will know, I lost my mother to Early Onset Alzheimer's in 2019. My mother was the dearest person to me and it was devastating to watch her disappear over time before she left us for good. My mother was alive for my 40th but Alzheimer's had taken away the knowledge of when my birthday was at that point. It was the first birthday that she had forgotten and so made it a sad day for me. I wanted Mum to be part of my 50th birthday plans and so I had the idea of raising money in her honour as one of my 50 things.

I am not a runner (dodgy knees) but I like to walk so I have decide to challenge myself to walk at least 1.5 Million steps between 12th Feb 2024 and my 50th birthday on 17th April 2024. That works out to be around 23,500 steps every day.

I have decided to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society as it seemed the most obvious choice. They provided me with vital information as Alzheimer's took hold of Mum. I would have been completely lost without that support so fundraising for them seems correct.

I have not done anything to remember her since her passing as I needed time to recover from the trauma of the 6 and a half years of decline that my brother and I experienced prior to her passing. Doing something in her honour at this time seemed the perfect thing to do - I hope to do more positive things in her memory in the future.

Thank you to anyone who donates.

MORE ABOUT MY MUM

On January 4th 2019 my mother sadly lost her battle with Alzheimer's. For those who didn’t know Mum first started to show signs of the disease about 10 years before her passing, when she was in her late 50’s. It took a few years to work out that she was in the early stages of the disease. The delay was due, in part, to how rare it is for someone so young to get it but also due to the fact that the symptoms could easily be passed off as another part of her unique personality, as anyone who ever met Mum can appreciate. It became evident that Mum was struggling in 2012 and that marked the start of her cruel decline. After becoming sick on Christmas Eve 2018 she sadly was not able to recover and passed away in the afternoon on January 4th 2019. In some respects, at the time, I felt that it was a blessing that she was no longer suffering and of course the reality is that we lost the person she was a few years earlier - but mostly her passing was very much heartbreaking. It still is.

My Mum’s name was Margaret but was known as Maggie or Mags to most. She was brought up in Darlington in the North East of England and moved to Abergavenny in South Wales in the early 1970s. She had a very tough life which would have crushed many personalities but amazingly she still was able to find much light and joy in life. She was very small in stature - 5 foot and a quarter inch (the quarter inch was important) - but large in character. She would talk to anybody and every person I introduced her to would instantly be enamoured by her.

I am grateful that she was my Mum. I am grateful for the many sacrifices and struggles she endured bringing Julian and I up on her own. I am grateful for all the wonderful times we spent together and for the many, many belly-laughs. I am grateful that she brought me up to be so openminded and empathetic and for instilling in me the value of being kind. I am grateful to her for being so accepting of my eccentricities (especially in my childhood) and of course her unquestioning acceptance of my sexuality - I was always encouraged to be myself, to follow my own path and to never allow others to create doubt in me.

I always enjoyed it when Mum met my friends and even more so I was excited for them to meet her - one of the biggest pains is that I can no longer do that. I have met so many wonderful people since that have sadly missed out.

Rest well Maggie-Moon.

Love you Mum xxxx

Margaret Ann Taylor - 28/7/1950 - 04/01/2019