Alix Song
My Story
It's been a long journey to my first marathon - three years in fact!
My beloved mum was diagnosed with metastatic bowel cancer in early 2019, which had already spread to her liver. You can read more about her experience in our interview for Bowel Cancer UK.
Her diagnosis was devastating and underlined how precious and short life is and made me think about the life goals I have that I haven’t got round to achieving yet – running a marathon being one. So I decided to run in the 2020 London Marathon for Bowel Cancer UK, via a charity place. I also wanted to honour my Mum and knew the training and fundraising would help me through the difficult cancer journey.
I raised well over £4,000 for Bowel Cancer UK and my original target of £3,000 for the 2020 event, via my Justgiving page.
I ran a half marathon and trained up to 14 miles and then the pandemic struck so the London Marathon was delayed. I trained again. It was cancelled. My place was moved to 2021. I started training again but a back injury meant I couldn't run at all for six months so had to abandon the training and race. My place was moved to 2022.
When my mum was diagnosed, it looked unlikely she would survive to see me complete the 2020 marathon but she not only managed to survive, but thrive with her customary energy and positivity, despite the pandemic, until 2021, when she deteriorated. My sister and I cared for her at home until her death in October 2021.
I miss her desperately and would have loved her to see me cross the finish line on 2 October, but I'm determined to achieve my goal and run the marathon for her and all sufferers of bowel cancer: the UK's second-biggest cancer killer.
I have now raised £4653 at the time of updating this page and would love to get to £5k. If you have not already donated, I would so appreciate any further support, which will help this vital charity...and propel me to the finish line.
Many thanks!