Carly's Race for Life

Nine years ago, everything was great, I was finishing University, moving home for the summer and working out what to do with the rest of my life. Mum had been having some problems with her hand and put it down to a trapped nerve or migraines as the doctors suggested. We nicknamed her 'The Claw' and it was a family inside joke, apart from this small issue, she was healthy, happy and had a great tan from spending all her free time in the sun with her beloved Horses. Within the space of moving home four weeks, she had been diagnosed with three inoperable brain tumours and was told that they would eventually kill her. This news shook our family to the core, but we were strong and she fought it with everything she had, including having a brain biopsy, which she was awake throughout on her birthday, as well as walking the Race for Life with her walking stick whilst undergoing treatment. She tried everything that there was to offer and refused to let things get in her way. The tumours didn't behave like they were supposed to, and so she got ill quicker than thought, but still fought with everything in her to stay with us as much as she could. We lost Mum 7 years ago on 16th June this year. I do the Race for Life every year with her by my side, where I know she is every day, in her memory and to raise money and awareness of this truly horrific and heartbreaking disease. No families should have to lose members to this disease. I am lucky that my family is strong, supportive and helps me deal with the loss every day.