My brother and I ran our first half marathon at Hampton Court on March 26th in memory of our wonderful Dad Colin Dale on what would have been his 52nd Birthday. Dad passed away unexpectedly a month before his 50th Birthday in 2021.
He had suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage and unfortunately despite the best treatment and major surgery, Dad sadly didn’t regain consciousness and passed on February 5th. We then sadly lost our Nanna in 2022 to a similarly unexpected brain haemorrhage, to see it all again was awful but we knew we had to honour them throughout the sadness.
My brother and I knew we wanted to do a half marathon and when we saw that there was an event on Dad’s birthday, we knew that was the one. Neither of us are runners but we wanted to challenge ourselves.Fast forward to the 26th and Ben and I did it! We weren’t aiming for a particular time, we just knew that we didn’t want to stop or walk at any point.
It was so emotional, crossing that finish line and the lady on the microphone called our names and said how proud our Dad would be. He really would be proud, we raised over £1200 for Headway – a brain injury charity and Pumpkin and Friends, a charity that helps disabled animals as Dad was a massive animal lover.
It was a challenge and it was both mentally and physically tough but what a feeling to know we did it.
13.1 miles and 27,000 steps, each one of them for Dad and Nanna.
Thank you,
Hollie and Benjamin Dale.