I ran the London Marathon once before in 2010 and as I reached mile 22 and still had 4 to go I vowed that I would never ever run again if I got to the finish line. I ran it for Mental Health Foundation as my mum had always struggled with mental health issues and was in hospital with a breakdown when I was just 9 years old. 

Fast forward 14 years, 2 kids later and now without my mum I am doing it again. This time I am doing it for Missing People - a charity I've volunteered with for 5 years because of the close link between missing and mental health issues; never thinking I would have my own experience of missing. A person goes missing in the UK every 90 seconds. On 21st February 2023 my mum was one of those people. Thinking she had no other option (with the mental health support in this country failing her) she went missing in the early hours of the morning, creeping out, taking the car keys and leaving my Dad (her husband of 53 years) asleep in bed. She drove to the river and her body was found later that morning. We saw no signs. The night before her death she asked my Dad to go buy some milk and she packed her bag to come and stay at my house for a few days. She was looking forward to pancake day with the kids. But something in her brain must have told her when she woke in the early hours of that Tuesday morning that she should just give up. We will never know or understand....  

2023 was a struggle for my family to say the least. My mum was so loved by me, my Dad and she was a wonderful Marmar to my 6 and 5 year old children who loved her so deeply, and a year on still ask to see her. We all did everything we could to keep her going but mental illness is such a brutal and devastating illness that noone knows what is going on in their brains.

After Mum's death I organised a golf day in her memory raising over £18,000 for Missing People. This year instead the challenge is the Marathon (I think organising a golf day for 100 people was easier). Whilst I know I won't raise as much as that, if I can get a quarter of the way there I will be delighted and it will keep me plodding away. 

So here we go....this is for you my beloved Mum - London Marathon 2024. I know you will be up there shouting at me "you don't need to take this on on top of work, kids and raising a husband ;)". Well....I never listened did I ;)

Thank you for reading my story, for your donation and for helping to support those thinking of going missing, helping to find those missing and helping to support the families of those missing. 

By telling my story I hope to decrease the stigma around mental health issues and suicide. It can happen to anyone, any family, no matter how much love and support you give them. Sometimes they just think the only option is to disappear......

It's totally ok to not be ok. 

ALWAYS BE KIND. Karen x

I love you Mum ;

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Missing People supports hundreds of missing and exploited children every week. We care for adults on the brink of despair and suicide, every day. And for families living through the trauma of not knowing where their loved ones are, the charity helps them to cope, and to find hope. As the only dedicated charity in the UK providing a lifeline to anyone affected by missing, we can provide support to vulnerable people affected by disappearance and who have nowhere else to turn. Be a lifeline to someone in crisis.