First of all, thank you so much for taking a moment to visit my JustGiving page. All donations, no matter how small, bring me closer to my target and give me that extra morale boost not only throughout my training plan (around 600km in total!), but also for the big race day itself.

On May 27th 2014, my father lost his short battle with Leiomyosarcoma (a very rare and aggressive form of smooth muscle tissue cancer) at only 59 years of age. It’s sadly one of those heartbreaking stories we hear all too often, wherein my case a man who seemed so fit and healthy (non-smoker, seldom drank, always out on his bike or away hillwalking) was suddenly struck with down an aggressive cancer diagnosis. After bravely facing the cancer head-on for 17 months, which included various hospital admissions and operations, we lost dad.

Not a day goes by where I don't think about my dad, how much I miss him, his guidance, his knowledge of the world, and how he never lived long enough to meet his grandchildren. While I’m blessed to have a father-in-law who’s a wonderful granda to my two girls, I’m often left with the thought of “what if dad was still here?” as I know we would have adored them too. He truly was a special man, and while 31 years with him were nowhere near enough, I'm greatful for each day I did. If you take a moment to look at the profile photos on this page, you’ll get an idea of how much he lived life to its fullest and had many an adventure!

As 2024 will mark 10 years since his passing, I'm honoured to be representing Sarcoma UK by taking part in my first ever marathon, especially the famous London marathon! While I've been a keen runner for 20 years, the furthest I've ever ran to date was a single half-marathon, so I'm under no illusions this will push my body into unknown territory. There’s also the added factor of having to do a lot of my training on the treadmill (or DREADmill as it’s better known) whilst offshore to get me race day ready. Dad was a big fitness enthusiast, so I'm hoping he's going to be with me in some capacity on the big day, helping to push me towards the finish line.

I’ll be posting regular updates on this page of my training progress, so have a scroll down to see how I’m getting on!

Thank you all once again,

Kris