Running the London Marathon together is something we have wanted to do for a long time. In 2025 we celebrate being married 30 years so now feels a good time to do it but we have lots of other motivations too.

Before we even start training, our journey to the start line has been a challenging one. Most significantly was Gareth's lymphoma diagnosis in April 2021. A huge shock and the start of a difficult time for us all. The illness had a massive impact on us and our 4 children.

We will be forever thankful for the amazing staff at Priory and Queen Elizabeth hospitals who treated Gareth through chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and ultimately Car-T therapy in July 2022 which eventually cleared the cancer as confirmed in October 2022. There was also emergency surgery to deal with a bowel perforation after some chemotherapy. That was a wedding anniversary to forget! This left Gareth needing a stoma for 18 months before a successful reversal in January 2023. Special mentions to Dr Shafeek, Dr Mahendra, Dr Chaganti and Mr Ismail who led the treatments at various times. Also Natalie Smith, Kim Chadderton and Guia Tuason and the team at the Highbury Centre, Priory Hospital and Mel Heathcock and Dani Kulik in Car-T team at QE.

The picture below shows Gareth's T cells being collected in June 2022 to allow preparation for Car-T treatment.

We also had tremendous support from MacMillan throughout the treatment. This included information and the provision of a supporter, Lorraine MacAlpine who kept in regular contact. Gareth also made use of the therapist support available which was very helpful. Now is our chance to say a huge thank you and highlight the amazing work they do. We also want to raise as much money as possible to support their work so they can help others and guide them through their cancer journey.

This will all be familiar to our families, friends and colleagues but we will never forget the love and support you showed us all. The whole team at Virgin Money led by Robert Gibson were brilliant giving Gareth the best support in his absence from work. We also want to share the message wider and give hope to others going though challenging times that you can come through it and get back to some normality.

During hospital visits we both used to dream that one day we would do this together. We hoped to do it last year but not long after Gareth started running again Juliet had a back problem which meant she would not run for over 12 months. There has been significant improvement over the last 2 months so we are ready to give it a go.

As you can see our history with London is not great. 2020 the race was cancelled due to Covid when Gareth had a place. In 2021 Gareth had to give up place due to the cancer. In 2024 we withdrew because of Juliet's back. Fingers crossed this is the year! Gareth's done 5 other marathons before, most recently Manchester last year but this would be a 1st for Juliet who has always said a half is enough! To finally complete London and Juliet to go the distance would be 30 years well spent :) :)

Thank you for any support you can give, we will update you on progress.

Juliet & Gareth