Running With Diane
... the staggering final figure

THE GRAND TOTAL - Thanks to the generosity of my friends and colleagues, the final figure of this little adventure of mine is - with GiftAid - in excess of a staggering £1,600. It amazes me how kind and how supportive of my efforts to do this you have all been. Diane will be, I'm sure, as overwhelmed as I am by all you've managed to achieve. Thanks, everyone.

 

The day itself

The day went incredibly well. The weather was great (I won't spook you out by revealing I think Diane might have had something to do with this!) and we managed it in 35.58 (my time) - I also discovered I suit a pink running vest!

Diane, I hope, was enjoying every minute of it too. Because it was she who inspired me. It was being motivated by her which made me lose five stone in five months and do this. Diane died in February from breast cancer and I've never felt such pain, but with the help of charities like Breast Cancer Care, sufferers and their relatives have someone to guide them through this terrible time.

So that's why I ran this 5K with Diane. Yes. With Diane. Not “for Diane” or “in memory of Diane” but “with Diane”. She’ll be there every step of the way. We have done everything together for over 20 years, the best 20 years of my life, so why would it be any different now?

For those 20 years, she was my inspiration and strength in everything I tried to do. She remains my inspiration today. 

Although the run is finished, the appeal continues for a little while yet. In other words, if you still wish to donate, don't think you've missed your chance!

Already my friends - some of whom have unfortunately too had their lives hit by this horrible disease - have responded in unbelievable fashion. Their generosity is breathtaking.

If you want to join them and help raise even more much-needed cash for Breast Cancer Care, so others in our position can be helped, we’d be over the moon. It doesn’t matter how little or how much you give. Like the page says, Just Giving is what matters.

And if you can’t manage to give this time, if you could just think of the work Breast Cancer Care does and maybe chip in sometime in the future, that would be great.

Diane and I are very grateful.

 

Helping People Cope

The moment you hear the words, your life changes forever. Fear takes over, and then on top of that there’s the trauma of the operation, the pain of the treatment, the struggle to see any light at the end of a very dark tunnel. But the human spirit is a wonderful thing. It never loses hope. That hope might be false hope, but it is still the thing which keeps us going, keeps us motivated to do everything we can to get through this. And people who help give you that hope in order to cope with each terrifying day are a special type of person. They make you realise this is not always the end, and knowing that someone is out there whom you have never met who cares deeply about you and wants to help you through this, is a huge comfort. That’s what Breast Cancer Care does and that’s why Diane and I are supporting it.

Diane didn’t deserve to die when she did. No-one deserves to die from cancer. Cancer doesn’t care how beautiful you are, how generous, how kind and how understanding you are. Or it wouldn’t have chosen Diane. 

Those who met Diane were all the better for it. She was the most wonderful human being. She saw good in the worst of people, and she taught me how to as well. It was her greatest gift to me. She showed me that our differences are what make us special. And nothing or no-one can change that.

But cancer is a bully, picking on people it knows it can frighten, intimidate and, ultimately, destroy. Like all bullies, it’s a coward. It doesn’t look you in the eye. It creeps up behind you and never shows its face.

The devastation of getting that diagnosis never leaves you, even in those who claim to have “beaten” it, as they so innocently put it. But a bully doesn’t like being told you think you’ve won. It will lurk in the shadows deciding whether to beat you up again. The lucky ones won’t be bothered by it again, some it will take pleasure in revisiting. Diane was one of the unlucky ones.

At least she had a few months believing she had banished it. For a few months, the joy returned to her face, she was more upbeat, so positive. We started making plans. All the things we had put on hold, we could now think about doing.

Then it returned. With a vengeance.

Walk through any supermarket, we were told, and one in every half dozen or so people you see going about their everyday lives will be picked on by cancer. Some don’t even know it yet. They’re the lucky ones, I guess. At least they don’t know what’s about to happen. We were fine until that day we found out. Then it destroyed our lives immediately. The cloud that came over our skies and blocked out our sun would never really go away. Some days it wouldn’t be quite so dark. Other times, it just stayed bleak for days.

That’s why Breast Cancer Care and the work it does is so important.

You see, cancer thinks it defeated us. But it's wrong. If cancer killed Diane, how come I can still feel her hand in mine, feel her head on my shoulder and hear her voice in my ear? It thinks it beat her, but it didn’t. It could destroy her body, but it couldn’t lay a finger on what made her who she is and what she was to me. It cannot ever take away or invade what she meant to me. It must drive cancer mad to know that. To know there’s something in a person it can never attack, something so powerful  that it is immune to its bullying and out of its vile reach.

Diane and I are part of the Breast Cancer Care team now. Help us make a difference for people chosen by this evil disease and their relatives.

And help make a difference for those people you pass in the supermarket or see at the next big family get-together who haven’t found out yet.

Thanks.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.