A teenager will be running the London Marathon to raise funds for a cancer charity in memory of her “gentle” grandfather.
Molly Elliot, 19, will be taking on the challenge alongside her boyfriend, brother, and brother-in-law with the aim of raising £8,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support, which cared for her grandfather Ron Searle in his final months.
He had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a terminal form of asbestos cancer at St Bartholomew's Hospital on December 21, 2018.
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With the family's support, he chose only to have pain relief and no other treatment as there was no cure. He was supported by a Macmillan nurse until he died just under a year later at Whipp's Cross Hospital in 2019.
Molly, who studies at Epping Forest College and is a football coach, said: “My granddad, or Baccy as I have always called him, was my best friend - words will never be able to justify how incredible he was.
“He was funny, kind, gentle and clever.
“He was the glue of our family and so all four of us this year have decided to come together to raise money for this incredible charity who were there for our family and our grandad through the toughest of times.
“It’s the least we could do to say thank you.”
The London Marathon is taking place on October 2 and the four have been training hard for the event.
Molly said: “We’ve done as much training as we can but we’re all carrying separate injuries that have made it a struggle - but we’re hoping the reason why we’ve decided to run the marathon, will be what gets us through the full 26.2 miles.”
It is not the first time Molly has raised money for the charity, having previously run a 10K and a marathon last year raising more than £5,000.
Most recently, the family has also held a Macmillan Coffee Morning and raised £400 for the charity.
Molly said: “It was perfect - it was a day where everyone came together to celebrate what an amazing man my grandad was.
“We had pictures of him up everywhere to show the reason why we were holding the coffee morning.”
You can sponsor Molly via her Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/allforbaccy? or to get involved in Macmillan Coffee Morning, visit: https://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/
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