TCS London Marathon stories

Why Linda is running the TCS London Marathon

Last October, I ran my first ever marathon, the virtual London Marathon.

Whilst I ran around my local roads, my husband was running the actual London Marathon. He came home with his medal and t-shirt and despite us both completing the same race, I had nothing to show for my efforts.

It was this that made my decide to run for a charity for the 2022 London marathon.

As an only child, I always wanted a brother or sister and when I married my husband, his sister became my sister too. Jayne was the most amazing woman that I ever met. She was the matriarch of our family, organised all of our family holidays, birthday celebrations and Christmas parties. She also ran her own business, two great nursery schools.

Jayne was an inspiration to everyone that she met, she lit up any room with her smile

Despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2005, this never changed her outlook on life. She learned to live with the struggles that came her way, she would never let you know if she was having a bad day, her smile never faded.

Sadly, Jayne passed away in March 2017 aged just 58.

Once I had decided to run for charity, I knew it had to be in memory of my amazing sister-in-law. Therefore, MS-UK was the most obvious choice for me.

I contacted the charity and was thrilled when I was offered a place, I would get my chance to run in memory of Jayne.

I launched my fund raising page in March 2022, exactly five years ago to the day since we lost Jayne. My family kindly sponsored me and I was thrilled to reach a couple of hundred pounds.

My boss advised me to send my fundraising page to my colleagues at work, I sent it out the same day. During the morning, the funds came in bit by bit, a few pounds here, another hundred pounds there. At lunch time I received an email from my company advising that they would sponsor me £1,000. I sat and cried, it was so generous of them to do this for me

More donations came in that afternoon and at the end of the first day, I had reached my £2,000 target. I told all of my friends and family and they were all thrilled for me.

Since then I have received further donations and I now have over £2,700 raised for the charity

I really hope this money goes some way into helping other people who have been diagnosed with MS and their families.