Hello, for those that don’t know me I’m Laura, I’m 44 years old, recently qualified Nursing associate a single mum to two amazing daughters, and I can’t run. Two years ago whilst at uni I watched two friends run the London marathon, and along with others at uni we decided to enter the ballot. Little did I know that I would end up getting that ‘Laura you are in Email. I deferred last year as renovating a house working full time, doing a degree and dealing with Lucy was already enough. So this year is now my year. Have I trained, well if you call netball and 12.5 hours shifts training, then yes. If you call training, going out and running regularly then no. But ever the optimist and lives life by winging it, I will get round these 26.2 miles. Yes it will hurt, the mental struggle will be very much there and I will imagine by mile 3 I will definitely regret and question my life choices.

So you ask, why am I doing this and who am I doing this for. Well this is the deep bit, and I will try and be brief. So the charity I’m trying to raise a little bit of money for is Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland MIND. A local independent charity within the MIND network that help anyone experiencing poor mental health to live a happy and fulfilling life. As everybody deserves to live a life worth living. Many of you may be aware that my eldest daughter Lucy has desperately struggled with her mental health for over 5 years. As a family it’s been so difficult to watch someone you love so deeply in such turmoil, and as a mother you never expect to carry your child into A & E barley conscious due to them trying to end there life. You also don’t realise that this will keep happening as the illness takes full control, and you never in a million years think your child now adult will have been sectioned 6 times and that you will of spent night after night visiting her in the mental health unit in between work and life. But this has been our life and one that we just deal with. Visiting when she’s petrified of you even being there, sometimes getting there and she won’t even see you, not eating as the thoughts in her head were so twisted she thought we were going to poison her. Being told by nurses she had been put on strict watch and had her clothes taken away and had been given special clothes to wear though concerns of causing harm with her own clothes. Never knowing what you were going to find out or see when visiting, and being unable to see her sister for weeks due to children not allowed on units. This became the normal for us, it this is by no means normal. As a mother you advocate for your children no matter how old they are and that’s where the charity MIND helped not only Lucy but us as a family. They supported me on legislation, rights, and what should be happening and what lucy was and could be intitled to, so that we could help her start to get better and have a life worth living. They also gave advise on how we could help support her younger sister Ebony, who over the years has had a front row seat to all of this, and never knew who’s house she would be staying at depending on where I would be. I have however been so very lucky to have had great friends, great work colleagues and fantastic family around me to help and support us, but not everyone is that lucky so by helping raise money for our local charity of MIND we can ensure that someone can advise, support and help the familys of people that are suffering with there Mental Health as waiting lists are so large, just getting into the system to gain help can be a challenge as you can’t poor from a empty cup. I have always said a cup of tea and a biscuit can sometimes help make things better so if you can donate the cost of a hot drink and biscuit that would make my heart really full.

Please do think of me on the 26th April 2026, as my short lived pain of completing the London Marathon is nothing In comparison to what people that are suffering with there Mental health have to deal with day in day out. Please do sponsor me it’s for a really good cause, Thanks you xxxxx

For my girls Lucy and Ebony.

All photos have been given full permission for me to use by the Girls. Mental health can look very very different.

In memory of Katie