Why am I running 10k? By disposition I am utterly not a runner!

Each year, St Luke's touches the lives of around 6,000 people in and around Sheffield. With only 23% of their costs being funded by the government, they need to raise over £11 million this year to continue the incredible work they do. By taking part in the Sheffield 10K, I hope to help them to continue providing their services across Sheffield.

This run for St Luke's Hospice is in thanks for the extraordinary support Giles and I, my family and my friends received from them. And to do something good in the world, channel the love and loss into something useful. I'm asking please help them be there for the next family.

Our story. We weren't ready. Together for 33 years we adored each other and were still in love and were very much living the life we wanted when the unutterably irrevocably bad news of terminal cancer hit us, like being blindsided by a juggernaut.

Things moved fast. But for me St Luke's Hospice was the difference between coping and not coping. It allowed Giles and I to take the shoddy cloth of the disease and weave it in the short time we had into something that fitted us better, was beautiful. It gave us a supported space we made home for a month, enabled us to find our lightness between ourselves, I could be 'his Sam', not his carer, with laughter and love as we knew each other. This too for our family and friends so we could look back on this time so differently. We made the best of things, had good times as he was surrounded by love and ultimately those left in the aftermath have made good memories. The scaffolding of St Luke's held us, I felt it immediately as we walked in. The people who work there are beyond extraordinary. On top of the practicalities of round the clock incredibly personalised medical care and an immaculately clean, comfortable and welcoming room, catering and hospitality took it on themselves to look after our day to day emotional wellbeing as well as our stomachs. And in the aftermath, the counselling service they offered helped me to avoid quicksanding family and friends with my grief. In the most desperately distressing of times we were incredibly supported by the hidden generosity of so many people because despite hospices having to fundraise over 75% of what they need to do this, they are there.

So this run and fundraising is in memory of my gorgeous Giles. I'll be running with family, I'll be much slower I hasten to add! But this is in immeasurable appreciation of how lucky we were at St Luke's to have a place to make things the best they could be in that time. And to help others if they find themselves similarly stricken. Heartfelt thanks for anything you feel to do. Xx