My Story
Today, 28th January 2019, is the seventh anniversary of my mother’s passing and the twentieth anniversary of my grandmothers. Cancer has taken from me, the only two grandparents that I ever really knew and the only parent that I ever really had, my mother. I always tell people that in the absence of my father, I was raised by ‘the ‘family’ and I am incredibly proud of this. My grandfather passed when I was only nine but I remember him so well....the chocolate bars that he brought home with him after work, the trips to the seaside and the way he hugged me on his lap, after I fell top to bottom down the stairs, with my Penny Puppy Walker, one Christmas, as he proclaimed, with certain expletives.....who bought her that.....!!! Somewhere down the line, I affectionately and not disrespectfully, began to call my grandmother Amy and she had her own nickname for me! The last time that I heard her call me this, I was walking toward her bed in the hospice, as she beamed and proclaimed it, at the top of her voice....I recall that it was a fully occupied six bed ward at that time.....I cherish the memory and always laugh when I think of it..... When I was younger, my mother would refer to me as Fanny Fanackapan.....a name that many of you also now refer to me affectionately as, please don’t stop, I love it! I had planned to take on my first chipped 10K race during this month but six weeks of influenza and a bacterial lung infection and doctors orders, have sadly put pay to my training and my goal therefore....just for now! I promise however to get out there and do my absolute best, every single day of this challenge!
