In the early hours of the first day of the year in 2014, Lucy Skoulding had to say goodbye to her cousin Emily Styles – who died of MenB just six hours after falling ill
Lucy said her cousin was the “kindest, bubbliest, most wonderful girl”, who was only 19 years old when she died. “Family, friends, and loved ones were heartbroken,” she said.
“MenB is one strand of meningococcal meningitis, a disease which affects 2.8m people around the world every year but is not widely understood or talked about”.
Lucy, who said she was really close to her cousin, including holidaying with her in South Africa and Turkey, now wanted to do everything she could to help fight meningitis.
“The most important thing to me is continuing to raise awareness of the disease, and supporting the amazing work being done around research and vaccinations against it,” she said.
“I will support this until no-one ever has to suffer because of it again - I see my 10k in May as an amazing part of this journey.”
Although Lucy, who lives in London, has raced in one 10k before, she said that she was by no means an experienced runner.
“My training isn't going too badly, although I will admit I have been running more inside than outside because of the weather!” she said.
“I'm looking forward to it hopefully warming up a bit come March so I can train more outside as I much prefer it.”
To sponsor Lucy, please visit her JustGiving page.
