“I was blown away by Marika’s plan to run three marathons in three months when she was having such a rough ride with treatment. She was an incredible woman and was working as a nurse up until a few weeks before she died. She had such determination to keep living her life and running for as long as she could,” explained Jess.

Marika was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for stage four breast cancer and was heartbroken when she became too ill to take part in all three, but she managed to run the Edinburgh Marathon in May for the ICR.

'I needed to fundraise'

Jess and Marika shared her desk at work and Marika’s passion for running rubbed off on her. Jess decided to take it up last April. Just one year later and Jess is running the London Marathon, a race Marika sadly couldn’t compete in.

Jess knew a marathon would be a huge challenge for her, but if Marika could do it when so poorly, so could she.

“I really want to raise money to try and prevent others going through what Marika did in the future. When Marika spoke of all of the ground-breaking research being done at the ICR that is changing people’s lives, I had no doubt that I needed to fundraise.”

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