19th May

Katie: Until now, Ben and I have used the columns to make people laugh, to poke fun at ourselves and our feeble attempts at training and to bleat on about injuries and fears.

However, this week it seems far better to focus on the reality of why so many take part in the challenge and why it should be supported by everyone in the capital.

Since I started work at the Ham&High, Marie Curie has become a part of my professional dictionary. Before coming to Hampstead I wasn’t aware of the work that the charity does – I don’t think I even knew what a hospice was.

But now, given the great amount of support everyone here has for the Hampstead hospice in particular, it has become a familiar landmark in my mind.

It is perhaps one of the easiest charities to support because we have all of lost someone to cancer. Everyone has seen the cruel disease take life too soon and, for far too many, before it has even got going.

Much is focused on the scientific fight to find a cure, which the charity also supports, but comparably little is written about the day-to-day work that really has an impact on human lives.

The staff at Marie Curie offer the care, support and advice that is as essential as medical treatment for patients. Their tireless efforts bring comfort, and even smiles and laughter, to those who are facing the hardest battle of their lives – and that is one of the most powerful and admirable achievements I have ever witnessed. 

In our pages we have had celebrities paying tribute to the wonderful work the charity does, we have run countless appeals, but still it isn’t enough to fund this into the future.

Once you see and know how important this charity is to someone who is suffering, you realise just how priceless it is. And to help just a little way towards it is an honour and would be worth running the marathon a billion times over.