I have decided that with Grace’s successful completion of the London Marathon two weeks ago this will probably be my last contribution to Simon’s blog. She did brilliantly completing the course in 3hours and 54minutes and to date has raised almost £2,900 for the Multiple System Atrophy Trust, the only UK charity dedicated to providing specialist support to all those who like Simon are affected by MSA; a life-limiting neurodegenerative brain disease.

I went down to London for the weekend with my other daughter Eve and her family to support Grace and we had a fantastic time rushing around London to cheer her on in Bermondsey, the Docklands and Westminster.

In Grace’s own words:

My first marathon was the most incredible experience both physically and emotionally. The hours of training prepared me physically, but a 21 mile training run is a million miles away, pardon my pun, from the feeling of running 26.2 miles through the streets of London. The crowds cheering across Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and coming up the Embankment on the home stretch were a tonic to tired legs and in general I felt truly fantastic up until around mile 22. My legs started to get heavy at that point. My thoughts went to my dad and what I was running for and I found the inspiration to keep going and push through the final miles.

Thank you to all of you who sponsored me – your kindness is greatly appreciated. I was very touched by your generosity and the messages of support I received.

Eve, Grace and I in Horse Guards Parade with Grace showing off her medal

After the race we joined some of the people who are part of the small team in the MSA London office. It was good to put faces to names and voices and to meet two of the other runners – there were only four runners for the charity including Grace. I particularly enjoyed talking to Lyn, the Trust’s part-time administrator as her husband was diagnosed with MSA in 2007 and died aged 51. I have never had the opportunity to talk to someone who has experienced the same distressing deterioration in her partner and in particular the feelings that are engendered. Lyn does a lot of work with MSA support groups and is the key to the smooth running of the charity.

Not a day goes by without me thinking of Simon several times and sometimes of course I feel sad but he will always be part of my life whatever the future brings. The past year has brought me closer to my children and friendships have deepened. I’m enjoying my freedom and independence and looking forward to going to Sierra Leone (where Simon and I met when we were both newly qualified teachers) in October with six local teachers who are visiting their link schools. I still don’t feel able to reorganise Simon’s barn office and work in there myself and there are still some of Simon’s personal things I can’t part with but neither of these bother me. The time will feel right one day and in the meantime I am enjoying the lovely spring weather and seeing all the new growth and life. What an amazing world we live in and I am definitely one of the very lucky ones. I hope you feel the same way and will take time to look for the good that is everywhere.