In Memory

On Saturday evening my Aunt passed away. I found out on Sunday morning. She suffered from Scleroderma and Raynaud's, diseases that I raised money and awareness for last year. In the end it was neither of these things that caused her death but cancer in various forms. 

I feel compelled to write a tribute to her here because she was such an important part of my life, particularly in the last 18 months. By virtue of the fact we lived on almost opposite sides of the country, we didn't see each other often but we became much closer in the last few years. She was a great supporter of my running and fitness, probably second only to my parents.

She was my #VirtualTraining partner on twitter, bore the exhaustion on her condition to support me in the London Marathon and encouraged me to keep up my running afterwards by paying my entry to Run To The Beat.

We were prepared, as much as we could be, for this day. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with her recently, before it all became too much, and my last memories of her are happy ones. She was a strong, determined, incredibly positive woman. That said I didn't know how I felt when I heard the news, except that it felt appropriate to go for a run. That run was my fastest and strongest of late and I don't think it was a coincidence that she was in my thoughts the entire time. I ran again this morning, for her, because I can and I think it will be a long time before I run without her memory with me.