After Kate and Beth Webber lost their mum, Rosie, to lung cancer, they were keen to fundraise for a charity that made a direct difference to the lives of people with the disease. So, in 2019, they launched Run4Rosie – a 24 hour running event held each year in their local area of Chagford, Devon.
The pandemic has unfortunately put a stop to mass fundraising events all over the country, so Beth and Kate have this year taken Run4Rosie virtual and hope to encourage people from all over the country to get involved with their fundraising.
“Run4Rosie was launched in Mum’s memory. We held the first of our 24 hour sponsored runs in March 2019, on the weekend that would have been Mum’s 69th birthday.
It was a huge success with one participant running continuously for the entire 24 hours! A further 200 runners joined throughout the weekend to run our various 5k, 10k and 10-mile courses as well as children taking part in our mini marathons.
We held our second run last year, just before the world turned upside down with coronavirus. Again, this was amazingly well supported. In these two events, we have raised over £20,000 for Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. This is testament to how loved Mum was within our local community.
Mum lived in Chagford her whole life and was happily married to my dad, Rod, for 44 years. She worked as a veterinary nurse as well as helping for many years in our family ironmongery business, Webber and Sons.
Mum’s kindness and support to everyone knew no bounds. As well as being an incredible mum to me (Beth), Kate, and our brother Toby – she was a wonderful grandmother to seven gorgeous grandchildren: Finn, Barney, Carys, Sonny, Annabel, Gideon and Aidan.
Mum’s diagnosis
It was late May 2018 when Mum developed some shoulder pain. We just thought she had pulled a muscle after gardening and she was prescribed painkillers by the GP.
Within just a few days, the area had started to swell. The GP first thought was an allergic reaction to the painkillers as her bloods showed a raised white blood count. Mum had an ultrasound scan the following day and this showed a shadow on the lung.
The next morning, the swelling had increased and spread to Mum’s neck and face. We went into hospital on the 15th of June where she was diagnosed with an obstruction of the superior vena cava (the large vein that carries blood back to the heart) and we were told that the usual reason for such a condition is lung cancer. After more detailed scans, it was confirmed that she had lung cancer. Mum sadly passed away in the September, just three months after being diagnosed.
Run84Rosie
As a family, we wanted to support a charity that made a difference to the lives of people affected by and living with lung cancer.
We are proud to support Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation’s research projects with the money we raise. We didn’t get long with Mum after her diagnosis, so hope that Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation’s research into early detection methods mean that fewer people will have to go through what we did.
This year, we wanted to continue fundraising in a safe way during the pandemic, so, like a lot of things now – we have gone virtual!
We are challenging everyone, anywhere, to get involved in our Run8 4Rosie challenge throughout March. There are so many great challenges underway, to find out more see our Facebook page – Run4Rosie or Instagram – Run4Rosie.chagford. There’s still plenty of time to get involved and join the challenge.
The idea is to Run8, Nomin8 and Don8. People can choose whatever activity they enjoy – run 8 miles or 8 marathons, walk 8 walks or climb 8 mountains. It can be any at all! Then, photograph themselves completing their activity of choice, nominate their friends by sharing our poster with the hashtag #run84rosie, and most importantly, donate to Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation”.
To find out more and donate to the Run8 4Rosie challenge, visit Beth and Kate’s Just Giving page here.
