We have decided to run the Hackney Half Marathon for Sarcoma UK, we have chosen this charity in honour of our life long friend Laura who sadly passed from this horrible illness. Please read her story below.

Our lovely Laura where do we begin…

A 31 year old beautiful & strong Mummy, wife, daughter, sister, auntie, niece, granddaughter and friend that you could ever wish for and we were all so lucky to have in our lives.

Laura was first diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Sarcoma, in May 2021 when her little girl was just 3.5months old. After having 5 weeks of intense radiotherapy and surgery, a positive attitude (as always) and fight Laura was given the amazing news that she had been given the all clear but would need to go under surveillance for the next 10 years. This was Laura’s time to get back to enjoying a normal life with her incredible husband Chris and her gorgeous daughter Ivy and that’s exactly what she did.

Fast forward to 28th April 2022, on Laura and Chris’ 4th wedding anniversary, Laura got the devastating news that her cancer had returned with lesions on her spine and lungs. Intense radiotherapy started to try and shrink the cancerous cells, Laura was determined to put up a fight and not let the cancer win even though she was told that her cancer was incurable. Within 5 weeks of this Laura lost all movement from her tummy down and was left paralysed due to the lesions pressing on her spinal cord. This left Laura to deal with a lot of emotions and adaptations for her life in the future with this in mind Laura still continued to put up a fight, her main focus was to get better and back home with her amazing family where she belonged.

Laura was eventually able to be back in the comforts of her own home facing new challenges with the support of her incredible husband Chris (the most amazing man!) her lovely mum and dad and incredible sisters. Shortly after her electric wheelchair arrived and this was Laura’s time to get back to a new normal, where she enjoyed days out to the farm, coffee dates, pumpkin patches, parks, date nights, stays with her best friends in Norfolk and days out with her incredible family.

Throughout the year and heading into 2023 Laura faced more complications and devastating news that her sarcoma was active and spreading which resulted in her chemotherapy needing to be changed to target the areas and continue her fight.

On 16th Feb 2023 Laura got the heart breaking news that her chemotherapy was no longer working and that she only had a couple of weeks left to live, with this in mind she got up everyday without fail to make memories with her amazing family. She ended up turning two short weeks into almost 8 weeks and sadly passed away on Easter Sunday.

Laura, inspired us beyond words, her strength and bravery was out of this world and she fought like a warrior right until the very end. We are so proud to call her one of our longest friends and we will miss you so very much.

Any donation big or small would be appreciated to go towards the Sarcoma UK charity.

Lots of love

Ellie & Italy

xxx