A brief aside - Run for Life

Please forgive me for using my work blog for a personal issue, but I’d like to thank those at the University of Southampton and those from the 7th International Symposium for Display Holography, who sponsored me in the Race for Life.

Taking part in the 5km race, along with 10,000 other women on Southampton Common on the 16th July, was probably one of the most moving experiences of my life.

I’m not one for the ‘fun-run’, but I thought that this was worth the discomfort of training for. The Race for Life is a charitable fund-raising event in aid of Cancer Research.

We were encouraged to write down the names of the people we were running in memory of, and display them on signs on our backs. If it wasn’t for cancer research, I shouldn’t be here – my Mother is a survivor, however her sister died from cancer at the age of 36. I have 3 friends struggling with cancer at the mo too, so I wrote all their names down on a sign which I pinned to my shirt.

I wasn’t the only one. As I jogged behind (and passed) different women during the event I had to wipe the tears away - it’s one thing to know that cancer kills one-in-three, but it’s another thing to be confronted by their names, their faces and the terms of endearment from those who loved and lost them - in their thousands.

Thanks again – for the sponsorship – and the opportunity to be one of the heard.