Hi and welcome to our BESTIE LONDON MARATHON PAGE! 🩷

Yep you heard it! We are running the London Marathon 2025 for Brain Research UK and here’s why….

In July 2022 I (Megan) was diagnosed with a very rare brain condition called a arteriovenous malformation in my brain (AVM) 🧠

As you can imagine this flipped my world upside down and I needed this ticking time bomb out of my brain as soon as possible. I had a then 5 year old daughter, a business, a family and my life just crumbled. Worryingly, my Neurosurgeon was not happy to remove my AVM following many in depth tests as they showed a deep artery causing too high risk of bleeding. I was the hospitals worst patient, I rang every day to be seen sooner as I was not content with being on a long wait list when I knew how urgent this was. Let me tell you this, it worked. I was told due to the deep artery, I would not find anyone willing to operate and remove my AVM in this country. After days spent on the phone to many people, even trying to find quotes for surgery in America, I was so lucky to find Mr Walsh and after consultations he agreed if I understood the risks and was ok living the rest of my life with the potential worst outcome he was happy to go ahead.

In March 2023 my husband and I made our way to London for Embolisation (blocking off some arteries in the brain) to reduce the risk of a heavy bleed followed by a craniotomy the following day to remove this out of my brain. All I have to say is brain surgery isn’t for the faint hearted. The following days brought the craziest of experiences but I was finally AVM free and it was time to allow my body to recover from not only months of agony, but 2 days of invasive work on my brain.

After a year of ups and downs, and some scares along the way, I learning to regain my balance without an aid, experienced my vision sneak back bit by bit, regained cognitive skills I didn’t know I’d lost until they were gone however, as the weeks past I lost more and more hair which was a hard pill to swallow considering I had little left! Im at a point in my life where I am wanting to take on my next challenge with the best support by my side. Those who know me will think this is kind of impossible but also know when I set myself a challenge I don’t give up and I am so excited. I would say I definitely could not be doing this alone!

Harriet's idea to run the London Marathon for Brain Research came long before me but crossing that line together will be such an achievement. We can turn what has been an awful experience for everyone close to me into something positive. Trust me when I say supporting someone in this situation must of been awful. My husband is also running the marathon for Brain Research so this is going to be such an emotional day.

Any donations would be so appreciated to help us on our way whilst completing this crazy challenge we have set ourselves. If I can do something to raise awareness and much needed funds for a charity to gain research to help support any human who has to travel on a journey similar to mine then I am in full support of that! 🖤

See you at the finish line!🏃