Thank you for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page - especially as it’s one I never intended to open. After a massive fundraising effort in 2018 when many selfless, wonderful, generous people enabled me to raise £918 for Pancreatic Cancer UK, I decided it was unfair to keep shaking my tin at people with overstretched budgets. But this year, my funny, brave, strong mum was diagnosed with skin cancer.

My mum was ‘lucky’; her skin cancer was treatable, but to be on the safe side, she was required to have a course of radiotherapy at The Royal Marsden Hospital. No big deal, you might say, but this is the hospital where my dad faced a battle he couldn’t win with pancreatic cancer, this is where my husband was successfully treated for his cancer but where we returned for follow-ups year after year. It’s a hospital full of difficult memories. No wonder Mum was apprehensive.

Mum being Mum though, she sailed into her treatment best foot forward - matching her shoes to her trousers or her earrings to her top - setting others at their ease and creating warmth and laughter wherever she went. No one would have known how frightened and sad she was inside but her courage was bolstered by everyone on The Royal Marsden Hospital team, from the volunteers who greeted us at the door with a song, to the wonderful radiotherapists who took care of her. “Isn’t it marvellous,” said Mum quietly, “that I don’t have to pay for this? That I’m being treated for free?”

And that’s when I decided to run this year’s Cardiff Half Marathon on 1 October 2023 in aid of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in support of this brilliant hospital so it can be there for everyone who needs it.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Cardiff Half Marathon and 15 years since I ran my first half marathon in Cardiff. I’m grateful to still be running, but I’d like to make a difference too. The Royal Marsden Hospital is at the forefront of cancer research and develops life-saving treatments which are used here in the UK and around the world. Please help if you can. Thank you.