Remembering Verena by running the Great North Run

Almost a year ago now, our beautiful mother Verena Short died of complications from lymphoma, at the age of 57. She was one of those rare people about whom nobody had a bad word to say, a card-carrying member of the International Network of Friendly Geordies.

It's impossible to overstate the devastation her death has left us in.

In her lifereel interview, conducted around a year before she passed away, Verena mentioned the soft spot she had for the Great North Run - the route finishes in her home town of South Shields. She completed the Great North Run years ago, and had it not been for her diagnosis in 2017 and subsequent treatments, we daresay she might have given it another crack someday.

But she can't do that now, so we're going to.

Despite being in the worst shape of our lives, we (her two sons, Eliot and Oscar) are running the 13.1 miles between Newcastle city centre and South Shields on September 10th. Training has been tough, but we know that come race day, we'll be crossing that finish line in Verena's memory.

We're running in aid of Maggie's Centres, who provide free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends. Verena regularly went to her local Maggie's group and got a lot out of the support offered there.

If you want to join us in raising money in Verena's memory, we'd be forever in your debt. In her lifereel she said "I don't think I'll be remembered for anything amazing, I'm just an ordinary person." But ordinary people do the most amazing things. They become devoted wives, loving mothers, genuinely interested friends and stoic fighters. Verena was all of that and more. The very best person we've ever known, and the very least deserving of the hand she was dealt.

She'd love to know that some good could have come from her situation. So please give if you can xx

- Eliot & Oscar