For a while now, running a marathon has been on my bucket list of things to accomplish... therefore I thought I would ease myself into that challenge and start with doing a half marathon. Edinburgh seemed the most fitting location to do this, as it is home and I knew it would increase the likelihood of people coming to support me on race day! 

As many of you will know, my fabulous mummy, Sarah was first diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago. Since then she has undergone chemotherapy twice, radiotherapy and several surgeries whilst doing it all with great humour and grace. Five years on and two more diagnoses later, her third cycle of chemotherapy has been stopped due to kidney problems and her generally not feeling well enough to endure the gruelling chemo course. 

It is for that reason I have decided to run in support of Bowel Cancer UK, a charity that researches and raises awareness for this commonly missed cancer.  

Sadly stories of GPs missing the early signs of bowel cancer are all too common. This was evident in mummy's case as who would have thought a beautiful 47 year old woman could have bowel cancer?! After she'd been told the criteria for having bowel cancer was being an obese 60 year old man... which we now know to be wrong as cancer doesn't respect such templates. Early diagnosis is key to surviving this terrible disease. Therefore the more awareness we can raise for bowel cancer the better.