A day of reflection

I awoke this morning raring to go. Having already completed 16 miles in the last few days and with the prospect of my first "Kenyan Hills" session today I was feeling positive, on track and ready. My marathon ambitions are slowly becoming a reality and, whilst I fully expect a set back at some point, I am taking the good while it lasts.

So during my Kenyan Hills training session (sprinting up killer hills, resting for 90secs, jog back down and repeat = knackering) I was thinking about today's post. I was going to write some flippant prose of how the Western world seeks "Kenyan Hills" (in rural Oxfordshire... seriously they are nothing close to terrain of Kenyan Hills) to build stamina whereas those who live in the Kenyan Hills cope with the steep terrain day in and day out, not through choice, not for vanity and marathon training, but as part of their hard and gruelling daily lives. And then I checked my Facebook page and my mood evaporated.

"Our darling girl, Alice, gained her angel wings today. She passed away peacefully with Simon, Milly and myself by her side. We are devastated and know that our lives will never again be the same.

#NightNightAlice

Vicky 12 January 2013"

For those of you who read my Sober Up post this will mean something to you (if not I really recommend you do - click here). Alice was a 17 year old girl who had terminal cancer having been diagnosed at the tender age of 12. I only discovered her a few days ago through my pledge to raise 1,000,000 pence for cancer charities, but in those few short days, reading her posts was an inspiration and she has become a daily feature in my online social world. A friend if you will. I can't even begin contemplate her family's loss in comparison to my own but suffice to say I will miss Alice. The poignancy of this amazing woman being robbed of her young life from Hodgkin’s lymphoma (a form of cancer) only spurs me forward with even more determination and gusto. Whilst £10K is nothing compared to the huge sums some people raise it all counts towards finding a cure and potentially stopping another inspirational 17 year old being robbed of their life too early.

But the million dollar question is did I support her cause and sign up to join the bone marrow register. I am ashamed to admit that despite the blog and my plea for others to sign up that, in fact, life got in the way and it became another thing on my ever increasing "to do" list. Sadly Alice's life has stopped but her "bucket list" was thankfully complete, thanks to strangers making it happen today, not tomorrow when it might be too late. And so I have now signed up. Due to my age I have to go via blood donation but this was something else on my "to do" list so two birds and all that.

Can I now please urge you to all consider giving a little; be it bone marrow ( Anthony Nolan register here or the British Bone Marrow Registry here). or pence (click here to donate). Do what you can and together as indivduals we will conquer the challenge ahead.