Far away, a star shines for us… A symbol of our bond. Together we can conquer everything life has in store. Always there, forever friends….

Dear friends and family,

We are a small group of people called Team Alex, who decided to run London Royal Parks Half Marathon 2018 on the 14th of October 2018 to help and support those affected by diabetes and prevent it. Our friend and colleague, Alexandra White, is the initiator of the group, who lost her loving husband after a 20 years fight with diabetes back in 2015. We decided to support Alexandra on her first time in life experience, running half marathon, as well as to contribute to the society by
raising up some funds for Diabetes UK. 

Alexandra & Paul met through work in London, where she came from St. Petersburg to study her MBA Degree, and he was living there. They both used to work in hotel industry, for the same company called Orient Express Hotels, Trains & Cruises (Belmond Hotels nowadays), Alexandra used to work for one of their hotels - Belmond Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg as the concierge to start with, and Paul was working in the head office of the company in London as the accountant, where he gradually progressed to a CEO and President of the company within 20 years of hard work and dedication. It was a romance story from day one, they fell in love right there, and got married 8 months later. There was an instant sparkle and they never had a doubt that it was a destiny. Alexandra always supported her loving husband and helped him in all his endeavours. It was a very strong and happy marriage.  

3 years after the tragedy has happened. Paul was diagnosed with a kidney failure as the complication of the diabetes, which he has been suffering from for 20 years by then. He needed the urgent kidney transplant to be able to live further, which he sadly never got. Paul died at the age of 50 from a heart attack as the result of the diabetes, leaving his two beautiful boys, Jamie & Max, behind, aged 11 and 13 at the time. Tragically, 13 years old Jamie was in the car witnessing his father’s death on the day, which had a huge impact on the little boy for the rest of his life, who was so close to his father.  

Paul was someone very genuine, caring, friendly, kind, positive, optimistic, and simply a remarkable person you can ever meet in life. He was a great mentor, friend, husband, son, brother and forever loving person, who shared his love and life with everyone around him. He simply shined! 

He had friends all over the globe after all the travelling he has mainly done for business, visiting more than 150 countries around the globe.  He was very much into charity and was the Ambassador of couple of charity organizations, always taking the opportunity to save someone’s life. He played a huge role in Down Syndrome charity, because his younger son, Max, was born with the disease.

He was much loved and highly appreciated within his professional life as well as friends and family, who loved him with all their hearts. Occupying a high position in the hospitality industry at the time, he was never vain. He achieved all the recognition and respect through hard work and dedication, at times ignoring his health issues and well-being. 

Paul was a people’s person, he was all about giving out, and never taking back. People wanted to be around him and always appreciated his advice and opinion. He always put his family as the priority, making sure they were all very well looked after. He had the most incredible kind heart, which stopped beating on the 16th April 2015. Prior to that, Alexandra and the family have put all their efforts to help and support a loving member of the family. He was far too precious to lose. They took Paul to various parts of the world to see if they can assist him with finding a suitable kidney transplant. It was a very long and exhausting fight for everyone with 5 times a week sessions of dialysis, medical consultations, all the pain and sorrow, related to the horrible disease, but after all Paul sadly lost the battle. 

Today Alexandra is a different person. The tragic journey that she had, made her so much stronger.  She took it one step at the time, and started learning how to live the life again after she lost her beloved husband. The journey was incredibly hard, through tears and sorrow, darkness and hopeless times, but due to family and friends’ support she has made it to a stronger and better person with good values in life. There is nothing impossible in this world.  We are all happy to be a part of her life and support her on her journey.

From Aurelius Augustinus we want to send you the following words: "Those, who loved me so much, do not look on the life that I lived but the one I am starting". Therefore, Alexandra makes sure in her everyday life not to let the memory of Paul down, and drives herself for the new victories, through all the life obstacles and challenges. She always makes sure that he is proud of her no matter where he is now. Every day she carries the fondest memories in her heart about her late husband.

This run is a challenge for her, but at the same time a wonderful opportunity to pay the tribute to her late husband, and help others, millions of people who are being diagnosed with diabetes on daily basis… “A silent killer”, who is taking so many people’s lives away,  and only together we can fight it and make this world better. Alexandra can’t bring her husband back, but she can save the lives of other husbands, brothers, children, people, who are in need of help. All of us are very happy and proud to support her in this journey! We are asking you to do the same, if you could. Please use this page for any donation you can make.

Every second person is at risk of getting diabetes after the age of 40 in the UK. We are very honored, as the team, to do this race for Diabetes UK together, since we can potentially save people’s lives, support the community and most importantly contribute to the research and prevention of the diabetes.

Thank you on behalf of all of us!

Team Alex

X

P.S. Alexandra wants to say a special thank you to her parents for all the love and support and Tony & Wendy Frazer-Price, very good friends of her late husband, who provided immaculate support to Alexandra since Paul passed away. They walked her through the tunnel of darkness, fear and sorrow hand in hand, until she became strong and confident. Alexandra remembered Tony's words at the time  for the rest of her life: "Today is tomorrow, that you worried about yesterday. And its all fine!" This run is dedicated to them....