While Xander and Laura sat in a pub with family and friends celebrating their sucessful wedding day the previous day and reflecting on their future together, Kate was gearing herself up to run her first London Marathon for Anthony Nolan steeped in greif following the death of her dear friend, Mark.

Mark, like Xander, had leukemia and they both had stem cell matches through Anothony Nolan. Mark received his transplant but sadly the stem cells didn’t have time to work their magic and Mark passed away from infections before Xander had even started to get sick. Xander also received his transplant, 4 years after Mark passed away, this time the cells did get a chance to work, but devastatingly they were working too well and Xander passed away from graft vs host disease. Two lives tragically lost too soon.

We have begun to realise that Mark and Xander had a lot of similarities. They were both the life and soul of the party, kind and thoughtful with a wicked sense of humour. They have brought us together to talk each other into silly challenges and push us on through the tough times.

Given that April 2026 would have been Xander and Lauras 7th wedding anniversary and will be Kate's 7th London Marathon we thought we'd go big... bigger than 12 marathons in 12 months 🤭

So starting on 19th April 2026 we will be running the Guernsey Marathon, we then fly back to the UK on the 20th and start our journey from Lincoln Cathedral down to the Excel centre in London running a marathon each day. We will then collect our London Marathon bibs and run the London Marathon on the 26th April.

Of course, our theme is "run for love" so we will be wearing something different each day to remember (make life more difficult) Xander and Mark.

Guernsey- Anthony Nolan colours

Stretch 1- RAF greens

Stretch 2- Post Office attire

Stretch 3- something birdlike

Stretch 4- something Disney

Stretch 5- Guernsey colours/Gloucester colours

London Marathon- Wedding dress and Bridesmaid dress (this time, for the whole marathon)

We are dedicated to raising as much money and awareness of Anthony Nolan as possible and between us we have raised approximately £80,000. However, we want to keep going and save more lives in the best and possibly only way we know how, running.

Support us, by donating, turning up at one of our marathons/events or simply sending us luck on our crazy challenge!

#runforlove #7forour7th #LauraandKateRunLincolnToLondonForLove

#AnthonyNolan #leukemia #inmemoryofxander #runningformark

@12in12AN @katiekins1974 @7.for.our.7th