Georgia to tackle her first London Marathon in memory of her Warwick dad

Georgia, daughter of Mark and Mandy Littlejohn, will be taking on the 26.2-mile feat in April in aid of Cancer Research UK.

Mark and Mandy, who is a Warwick town councillor, moved to Warwick with their children in 2000 and now Georgia lives in London.

Mark was diagnosed with throat cancer in August 2014, after chemotherapy, radiotherapy and an operation, he was given the all-clear in May 2015. However, in September 2016 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and died on March 21, 2017, aged 60.

Georgia said: “I am running this years London Marathon in memory of my amazing father. After he watched me run the Race For Life in aid of him in 2015 he always wanted and said I should enter the London Marathon.

“Unfortunately, with his illness taking a dramatic turn for the worse I was unable to enter in time for him to see me.

“I then went to go watch the marathon with a friend and it was so inspiring and I said ‘I need to do this next year’. I knew it was the right time for me to do it and sadly dad isn’t here but I am doing it in his honour.

“I was lucky enough to get a place, which is amazing as it is quite difficult to get a place for the charity.

“Getting a place with the charity this year means the absolute world to me, and I know dad would be so happy.

“You have to raise a minimum of £2,000 but I set myself a target of £5,000, which I have now also reached.

“I also think dad would have thought it was pretty special to raise over £5,000 for the charity as cancer is going to affected everyone on the planet at some point.”

Before deciding to do the marathon Georgia had only run a distance of around five miles. She said: “You have to be really committed to training. I am lucky as I have a fantastic trainer, Noel Butler from Warwick, helping me and I have managed to get up to 15 miles so far.

“I am a bit nervous about the marathon but I am excited more than anything. It’s not about completing it in a certain time, it’s about getting over the finish line for a fantastic cause.

“I am just going to give it my absolute all.

“I also have a friend doing the marathon and we had watched it together and were both inspired by it and we both managed to get places and I think we will run it together.”

To sponsor Georgia click hereTo help her fundraising Georgia and her mum Mandy and their friends organised a fashion show and silent auction at the Old Fourpenny Shop Hotel in Warwick on March 21.

The fashion show read more about the