THIS Sunday Sara Marchington will be lacing up her trainers and pounding the pavements alongside thousands of others as she takes part in the London Marathon.

Each participant has their own reason for committing mind and body to the grueling slog around the UK’s capital - for Sara, it’s the memory of her dad Harry Marchington.

Harry would have turned 70 this month, but he was cruelly cut down by cancer last July.

Sara has chosen to honour his memory by running for St David’s Hospice Care, the charity who cared for him during the final stages of his illness and allowed him to pass away at home.

Sara told the Chronicle, “Although dad getting cancer was the most horrendous of times, St David’s really did make things easier for us.

“Although not a service, anyone would ever want to have to use, in Abergavenny we’re extremely lucky to have access to a charity which really does make the worst possible time that little bit easier. St David’s is the largest provider of hospice at home care and they currently care for over 3,200 patients and families each year, at a cost of over £7.9 million. We’ll never be able to thank them enough for what they did for us last year but I hope that, in raising money for this special charity, many other local families will be able to benefit as we did during the worst possible time.”

Turning her thoughts to the big day, Sara said, “To say this is going to be a challenge would be an understatement. I only started running last year and, prior to this, would never in a million years have imagined I’d be doing a 5k run let alone a marathon, but the incredibly generous donations and messages of support so far have kept me going throughout the training and are such an incentive for the day itself.”

Sara added, “Dad would have turned 70 this month and if there’s anyone reading this who would have bought him a birthday drink, it would be so very much appreciated if you could instead donate the money in his memory: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/sara-marchington-marathon or please contact me on [email protected] if you would prefer to give an offline donation. Thank you.”