Running the Ealing Half Marathon in memory of Mum

Hello!

This is us, Mattie (left) and Katie (right)

What are we doing?

A long awaited challenge, we will both be running the upcoming Ealing Half Marathon 2023, on the 24th September from 9am… come see us!

What is it for?

This fundraiser is aiming to raise money for Macmillan, a charity that has routinely saved our mum’s life, and provided her with community and invaluable support since her diagnosis, from the initial breast cancer and its recurrence to secondary brain cancer. Unfortunately, as Georgia passed away early last year on February 2nd 2022, this money isn’t anything specific that we are raising, but rather a deep gratitude to Macmillan and the hope that we can support other families.

Who is Georgia?

Our mum was born into a lively flat in Stanmore where to be heard you had to be loud. And loud she was – a big character, friendly and bold, endlessly kind and endlessly cheeky.

After being the first of us at university, completing a degree in Engineering as the only girl on her course, she shifted her wits into something a little more to size, communication and internal relations.

Other than work, she travelled whenever she could, her adventures beginning with a one-way ticket to Australia where along the way she picked up countless friends and memories, and our dad as well.

After a tense negotiation deciding where to live between dad’s childhood Lincoln and Georgia’s childhood London, they eventually compromised and settled on London. Mum and dad chose Ealing to build their family in. Our playgroups and neighbours, schoolfriends and clubs. Where we played football, cricket and learned to skateboard.

Why Ealing Half?

It’s not just a coincidence that the Ealing Half starts at the end of our road, or that Georgia regularly volunteered for it, or that we would run the Mini Mile as younger kids. But the whole route, really, is a tour of our childhood, from school runs to parks to shops: up and down the places mum would take us.

Lammas Park, the final stop, was probably the first place either of us visited in our lives, and the last place mum did before she died. A pram exchanged for a wheelchair; lives starting and ending along these roads.

What can I do?

Be a Volunteer

Come and Support/cheer us along the route at any point

Run with us <3

Give your mum a hug (if you are in the position to)

Donate if you can!

It would be a shame to miss another important figure, our late friend Simon Whittock, husband to Nicola and father to Lucy and Anna. Not only did Simon settle and build up a family in Ealing, but he frequently ran marathons -- including a few Iron Men and of course the Ealing Half! Simon, we will do our best to keep up.