Your donation to Jack's (One and two Half's!) Marathon Run for Lymphoma Action, The Chris Aked Foundation and Mummy's Star
In July 2024, my sister Tawnee and her family received the most incredible news – they were expecting their fourth baby. With three little ones already running around at ages 3, 5, and 7, their home was already full of love and chaos. But their hearts had room for one more.
Then everything changed.
What started as a persistent cough became a visit to the GP, then an urgent trip to A&E. Within hours, doctors discovered a large mass on Tawnee's chest. The diagnosis came swiftly: Primary Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma, with a 12cm tumour pressing against her lung and heart. She was only 38, just five weeks pregnant, and facing an impossible choice.
The doctors advised terminating the pregnancy. But Tawnee and my brother-in-law, Nick, decided to fight – for her life and for their unborn baby.
By late August, Tawnee was hospitalised to begin chemotherapy. Nick was suddenly solo-parenting three young children who couldn't visit their mum due to infection risks. I moved in to help, watching my nieces and nephew navigate this terrifying new reality while their mother fought for her life and their baby brother.
The next six months were a blur of hospital appointments, chemotherapy sessions during pregnancy, and trying to maintain some sense of normalcy for three confused, frightened children. Throughout it all, Lymphoma Action became our lifeline, their support group connecting us with others who understood this impossible journey.
Mummy's Star - a charity dedicated to providing cancer support to women and their families diagnosed during pregnancy or within 12 months of giving birth, also offered incredible support. They understood the unique trauma of facing cancer while carrying or caring for a newborn. Their expertise and compassion helped Tawnee navigate impossible decisions about treatment timing, delivery planning, and protecting her unborn baby while fighting for her own life. When you're walking an unknown path, having people who've been there makes all the difference.
There was another organisation that stepped up in ways we never expected. The Chris Aked Foundation exists to help the children too by providing practical and emotional support – creating moments of joy and normalcy when life feels anything but normal. While Tawnee wasn't the patient, her three young children were living through their own trauma, watching their mother disappear into hospitals, unable to understand why they couldn't hug her. The Foundation became a beacon of light for them. They organised activities, provided experiences, and gave my nieces and nephew permission to still be kids – to laugh, to play, to feel something other than fear. In our darkest moments, they reminded us that childhood shouldn't be put on hold, even when cancer crashes into your family.
At 34 weeks, my nephew was born early so Tawnee could complete her treatment. He spent time in NICU, another fighter in our family of fighters. Today, he's a healthy baby boy, and Tawnee is doing well. We're learning our new normal, adjusting to life after lymphoma.
Tawnee has always dreamed of running the London Marathon. Her diagnosis may have stolen that dream from her. So I am running both the London Marathon, the Royal Parks Half Marathon and the Battersea half marathon for her – for my sister, for her four incredible children, and for three incredible charities that held us together when we were falling apart.