Today I ran the Race for Life. Well I say ran, walked is more like it, not because of any unfitness or injury but because I met a lovely lady and we got talking.
The area started filling up about an hour before it started, all shapes and sizes and shades of pink. Normal hair, pink mad wigs, no hair. Symmetrical and non symmetrical women though you couldn’t initially work out why, thinking perhaps funny costumes. And the signs. The ones on everyones backs. That tells you why. Why they were running, why they had funky hair, why it wasn’t in some cases cool costumes. It was a gathering of women, and their supporters who had one major thing in common, the desire to give to a charity the much needed funds to help the fight against cancer and whilst doing so, remembering those who had lost the fight, or because they were the ones still fighting or who had at least for the while won.
I had been warned by someone that it was a day I’d find very emotional. They weren’t wrong. As the atmosphere was charged with tears of excitement and happiness tinged with sadness I was pleased I came, the money I had raised ( thanks to those who sponsored me) wont on its own be much but with us all there today they hoped to raise over £150000 which will help. And in a personal selfish way this will help me, the research hopefully finding a cure for my problems as well as all the others.
The lady I mentioned above that I walked with is one of the brave fighting ladies, on her second fight with Breast cancer she has a chemo session tomorrow morning. She told me how she had been wanting to do this race, before maybe she couldn’t again. That in order to do the 5k she had to co-ordinate with her care team, to make sure her immune levels were good. To avoid the sniffs and sneezes of everyone here, and there was over 2500 of us running, so that she could have her chemo tomorrow. The grace and determination in her to win, not just today’s battles but the big one was very humbling for me.
The area started filling up about an hour before it started, all shapes and sizes and shades of pink. Normal hair, pink mad wigs, no hair. Symmetrical and non symmetrical women though you couldn’t initially work out why, thinking perhaps funny costumes. And the signs. The ones on everyones backs. That tells you why. Why they were running, why they had funky hair, why it wasn’t in some cases cool costumes. It was a gathering of women, and their supporters who had one major thing in common, the desire to give to a charity the much needed funds to help the fight against cancer and whilst doing so, remembering those who had lost the fight, or because they were the ones still fighting or who had at least for the while won.
I had been warned by someone that it was a day I’d find very emotional. They weren’t wrong. As the atmosphere was charged with tears of excitement and happiness tinged with sadness I was pleased I came, the money I had raised ( thanks to those who sponsored me) wont on its own be much but with us all there today they hoped to raise over £150000 which will help. And in a personal selfish way this will help me, the research hopefully finding a cure for my problems as well as all the others.
The lady I mentioned above that I walked with is one of the brave fighting ladies, on her second fight with Breast cancer she has a chemo session tomorrow morning. She told me how she had been wanting to do this race, before maybe she couldn’t again. That in order to do the 5k she had to co-ordinate with her care team, to make sure her immune levels were good. To avoid the sniffs and sneezes of everyone here, and there was over 2500 of us running, so that she could have her chemo tomorrow. The grace and determination in her to win, not just today’s battles but the big one was very humbling for me.
So for those of you who haven’t ever done something like this, do try to next year. Its worth the couple of hours you will spend doing so. In our small individual ways we can help.
My memory list: Grandma A. Cousin Iris. Shelley.
Still Fighting: K and Rhonda
