On April 26th 2026, I will be running the London Marathon in memory of my beautiful daughter, Olivia Rose Foster, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, aged just 15 months, in October 2023.

My wife, Rebecca, and I will be forever grateful for the time we had with Olivia as she was such a bundle of fun; we are thankful that she only ever knew fun, love and happiness in her short life. We try to live our lives by the phrase "Be More Like Olivia" which is what we decided minutes after she died as we held our daughter in our arms for the final time. It means trying to find positives in life, making the most of the time you are given and supporting everyone. It also involves smiling regularly as Olivia always did, lighting up the room.

When Olivia died, we were in a state of complete and utter shock. We couldn’t believe what had happened and we had many questions which needed answering. We walked into Yeovil Hospital as a family of 3 and left as 2 heartbroken parents without their child; we were in unimaginable pain. We were told very quickly that we may never find out why Olivia died. When we heard that Olivia’s Postmortem was to be conducted at Great Ormond Street Hospital we took some comfort in knowing that she was going to the best Hospital in the world. As a family, we are eternally grateful to the staff at GOSH who gave us the answers we so desperately needed. It was found that Olivia died of Acute Viral Myocarditis, a rare and hard-to-diagnose illness. We can never put into words how much Great Ormond Street Hospital means to us.

During the London Marathon, I will be running for Olivia and keeping her memory alive; I will be raising funds for a truly incredible charity! As a family, we promised to make Olivia proud and this is a massive opportunity to do just that by taking on the 26-mile (42km) challenge! We appreciate your support and every penny raised will be going to an absolutely wonderful cause and I would like to thank you for taking the time to read our story and donating to Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

“BE MORE LIKE OLIVIA”

Harry Foster