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In honour of my dear father who sadly passed away on 3rd November 2017, I have decided to run my very first marathon in his memory.

My father was a wonderful man, with the kindest of hearts and a smile that was larger than life. In the summer of 1997 whilst attending his niece’s wedding in Chicago he was suddenly struck by a major stroke. On replaying wedding footage we were able to see how quickly my father went from being absolutely fine to losing the ability to use the right side of his body. Sadly this was 6 months before my own special wedding day.

Life was never the same after that, not only for him but our Mother and for all of us, as his children. The stroke was a life changing incident in many respects affecting him physically and mentally. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of a very slow decline in his health and after many subsequent strokes which triggered other illness and affected his mental health - eventually this led to his slow demise over the past 20 and a half years.

As many of you will know this is a HUGE quest for me and a MASSIVE challenge. I’ve only gotten into running over the last few years and since I'm not a naturally gifted athelete and because I never ran in earlier years, it can be tough on my body and I have been marred by injury many a time. I’ve managed to complete a few half marathons now and feel it’s time to take on the next challenge whilst helping an excellent cause. Whilst I won’t be breaking any records nor finishing in an amazing time, I'm determined to cross, or even crawl that finish line with your support. Please, please help me to get to the end of 26.2 miles with a smile 😊

As I no longer live in the UK I will personally be covering costs for flights and hotels for the weekend of the marathon. If you’re not doing anything perhaps you can come on down and cheer me and the other 30,000 runners on?!

Your support will change the lives of stroke survivors by funding vital services and life-saving research. I feel there is very little awareness about strokes and much more needs to be done to research this dehabilitating condition.

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