Beth Manister has been inspirational in her approach to her battle with Ovarian Cancer. Since she was diagnosed back in 2017, she has fought it all the way and raised huge amounts of money along the way. Anyone that knows Beth will know that she wouldn't just sit back and accept anything, cancer was also one of those things she wouldn't just give into. After extensive surgery, chemo and long stints in hospital, earlier this year against all the odds Beth went into remission, it was amazing news and brought so much hope to Beth, her many friends and family. 

Unfortunately only a month or so ago Beth had the news that things were much worse and the cancer had spread so far there was nothing more that could be done to fight it off. St Elizabeths Hospice and the team have been amazing, its given Beth the opportunity to manage the situation and spend quality time with her 13 year old son Sam. Her close network of family and friends have been able to have fun and laughs while the ongoing care was taken care of by the team at the Hospice. Sadly Beth passed away on Monday 15th October 2018.

Seeing how St Elizabeths helped Beth and her family prepare for things has been particularly poignant for me. Her story was very similar to my mothers. My mum died aged 44 in 1984 of bowel cancer, I was only 13 years old at the time. We didn't have the support of a hospice, we didn't have time to prepare and when she passed there was nobody to talk to. I know if I had the opportunity to spend time with my mother during the weeks before her death it would have assisted with the grieving process and the years that followed would have been much easier for us as a family. I can say with first hand experience that the work of places like St Elizabeths Hospice is priceless and we should do everything we can to make sure they have enough funding to continue the incredibly important work they do.

Beth expressed her wish to raise money for the hospice so it was an easy decision for me to take a place in the London Marathon to raise money for them. It costs £10.5 million a year to run the Hospice, with the majority of that figure being met through donations, fundraising and the support of volunteers.  

Please give to this cause, what they do means so much to many and gives families time and care that the simply wouldn't have otherwise.