In 2019 I got a place for the 2020 London Marathon through my running club, Abingdon AC. The April 2020 marathon never happened(!) but I was given the chance to take part in the virtual event as well as keeping my London place for a future year. A group of us ran and walked the 26.2 miles around Abingdon, Culham, Sutton Courtenay and Oxford on a rainy day in October 2020. It was a lot of fun!!

Luckily I was able to keep my place to run in London and have held onto it until April 2023!! 

2022 was a rollercoaster of a year with some very low points early on. Chris was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer in February and had surgery in March, followed by chemo from May till July. The NHS staff were amazing and the treatment and care he received were brilliant. While it was a scary time with lots of challenges, the tumour was operable and the treatment was successful. Recent scans and tests have shown no sign of cancer. Chris has been amazing throughout and we're keen to embrace life to the full! 

I have decided to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK while doing this marathon.

They are the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity. They fund targeted research, provide expert information and support to patients and their families, educate the public and professionals about the disease and campaign for early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care. They are here to stop people dying of bowel cancer.

My marathon training has had its ups and downs!! Niggles and injuries have halted training at times and a virus knocked me out for a couple of weeks, which meant I missed my final long run. I did manage lots of early Sunday morning long runs with some wonderful friends, weekday short runs with other fab friends and a few solo Half Marathon plus runs! So with this in mind, I'm really excited for Sunday! 

I've left it until now to get this page sorted as I wanted to make sure I was definitely going to make it to the start line!! And finish line too - even if I'm crawling over it!! I hope some of you can give a few pounds for a fantastic cause! Many thanks, Helen 🥰