Hi Everyone,
I'm doing the hackney half marathon on the 22nd May in memory of dad. As most of you know, he passed away after a long and valiant battle with cancer in January this year and had it not been from the support from Marie Curie I know we wouldn't have been able to keep him at home where he wanted to be.
I started running again when I was going back home more regularly to help out and then when I moved back at the end of November to care for dad full time I found running became my little escape every day. When I told dad that I signed up to run a half marathon he was a little surprised (I'm not a natural runner) but also pleased that I had something positive to focus on. We got into a lovely routine of him telling me the best places to run with their dog Jed and I'd report back afterwards on the route and how well behaved Jed was (often not so good!) I knew when I signed up that I would be running the half for dad, but never told him that because he would have looked at me in the "stop making a fuss" sort of way that he perfected over the last few years.
When dad started to deteriorate he decided that he wanted to stay at home and Marie Curies helped make that possible. They were at the end of the phone 24/7 and would come whenever he needed more pain medication. During dad's last night one of the Marie Curie volunteer nurses, a lovely lady called Diane, came to sit with him so we could get some rest. She was so warm and reassuring that I knew that would be the night that he'd chose to leave us. I hate to think of how much harder that night would have been if Diane hadn’t have been with us, guiding us through every step of the way. It can feel incredibly lonely caring for someone you love in their last few months, and without the help of Marie Curie, our distract nurses and our carers I know it would have been so much harder so I am hoping that my small contribution of running 13.1miles will raise some money as a thank you and hopefully to ensure other people going through this awful time get the same level of support we did.
Thanks, Polly xx