4th March 2013 was the day my life changed. My boyfriend of 6 years died: suddenly, far too young and without any warning. His heart stopped in his sleep. The cause of death for my healthy 29 year old man was heart failure. My entire world collapsed.
The grief was all consuming, deep, dull and agonising and effected every single part of my physical and emotional self. I will never find a way to articulate those dark days and still find it difficult to even allow myself to think about them now.
But life has a funny way of just going on. And, even though I had no idea that I was doing it, I went on too. And then one day I woke up and realised that I actually wasn’t doing too bad. And the more time passed, the more I learned to live. Now, nearly two years have passed. And, without really knowing how, I am happy, healthy and in love with my life. But one tiny piece is left undone.
My desire to do ‘something’ has been strong from the very start: I just never quite knew how, where or when. My state of my mind was always too fragile and my physicality was always too weak. But I always knew two things: I wanted to do something physically demanding and gruelling and I wanted to raise money for C-R-Y.
C-R-Y is Cardiac Risk in the Young, a wonderful charity who put all of their money into research and support. I don’t know what I would have done without C-R-Y, and know that if they continue to grow as a charity, they will help to save many young lives.
On 3rd January my friend Mark put up a post from another charity on Facebook. I blatantly stole the idea and asked Mark to join me for my cause.
So here we are: every single day from 4th March 2015 until 4th March 2016 we will run at least 3 miles a day. It will be difficult, it will be gruelling and it will be worthwhile.
No matter how difficult it is, I can still do it, because I am alive. And that is something that I never take for granted. And I can still do it because I am stronger than I’ve ever been. And that is a wonderful bi-product of a terrible situation. And most of all I can do it because Iain will be there, looking over my shoulder, spurring me on, with me always even we can’t see him, and that is what this is all about.
Gemma Tierney
