Thank you so much for visiting my Just Giving page. As you have got this far, you may already know that the past two years have been extremely difficult (to say the least), as following a 19 month battle with an extremely rare form of cancer (leiomyosarcoma), my beautiful mum passed away at Woking Hospice, in May 2014.

Though I won’t go into the details of mum’s illness, I would like to share how brave and stoical she was throughout, whilst also still somehow retaining her wonderful spark, sense of humour and warmth. All this and knowing she wasn’t going to get better, almost from the start. I don’t know how she coped. 

Therefore it seems appropriate that, in order to raise money in her memory, I should really push myself this year and attempt to become a Tough Mudder myself, as whatever hideous obstacles they have lined up for me, none will be as hard as those my mum had to fight against.

For this challenge I have chosen to fundraise for Woking Hospice, whose amazing staff provided the most wonderful compassionate care and support to my mum during the last two weeks of her life, giving her the relative comfort, dignity and respect that she deserved. Mum was provided with a room at the Hospice at a time when my family and I were sadly no longer able to give her the level of care that she needed, despite our best efforts, and I don’t know what we would have done if Woking Hospice hadn’t provided a room when they did.

It takes in excess of £8 million a year to keep the doors of Woking Hospice (& Sam Beare Hospice, Weybridge) open, but I have learnt first-hand that their patients are at the heart of everything they do and everything they seek to achieve. Please help Woking Hospice continue to provide specialist palliative care to those that need it, and support others like my mum.

Thank you for reading,

Catherine