INSPIRATION
My life changed completely in 2005 when my older sister Karen was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (bone marrow) cancer, aged just 54,” says Dawn Paul, 56, from Peacehaven in East Sussex. “For the next few years I pretended everything was OK, but then she started becoming increasingly ill. In April 2009, while tackling a marathon pile of ironing and watching the London Marathon on TV, I was having my usual thoughts about how brilliant it must be to run a marathon when it dawned on me that the only person stopping me doing so was me. I also wanted to support Karen, to almost share her pain, as she always tried to hide it right until the end.