Widow to run marathon in wedding dress on anniversary

A widow whose husband died of blood cancer will run the London Marathon on her sixth wedding anniversary - and plans to cross the line wearing her wedding dress.

Sunday's marathon will be the last of 13 which Laura Coleman-Day, from Lincolnshire, has run in a year to raise money for a blood cancer research charity.

She will run with her friend Kate Walford, from Guernsey, who lost one of her best friends to the disease and is also planning to run 12 marathons in a year.

Mrs Coleman-Day, from Witham St Hughs, said: "I thought what better way to honour the day and honour him than crossing the line in my wedding dress, so Kate and I are going to stop at mile 23 and put my wedding dress on."

"I just can't wait. It's going to be really hard, but also just such a massive achievement."

Mrs Coleman-Day's husband, Xander, was an aerospace battle manager for the RAF.

He died last year from post-transplant complications after developing acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a rare type of cancer which affects the blood and bone marrow.

Mrs Coleman-Day said she decided to run 12 races in 12 months for blood cancer and stem cell research charity Anthony Nolan.

"They were doing a lot of research into post-transplant and I didn't want anybody else to go through what me and my son have gone through," she said.

However, she actually ran a "bonus" 13th marathon earlier this month in Guernsey, where her friend Mrs Walford lives.

Mrs Walford will be running the marathon in memory of her friend of 30 years - and son's godfather - Mark, who died in 2018 after getting leukaemia for the second time.

She said running had "never been a natural thing" for her, but she'd signed up do 12 races to meet a promise to her friend.

"I'd always tried running, but hated it and would get to a couple of miles and think 'No, I'm rubbish at this, I'll stop'," she said.

However, when Mark became ill he started fundraising himself, a legacy Mrs Walford wanted to continue.

"We did have a final conversation where he said 'You've got to carry on raising money, raising the profile and helping more people' and that's where it started."

"He was a very special person, we miss him every day."

Mrs Walford met Mrs Coleman-Day through Anthony Nolan in 2023.

As well as being the second race of the 12 Mrs Walford plans to run, Sunday's race will be the pair's second together, after they took part in the Guernsey Marathon at the start of April.

"Although we haven't spent a lot of time together in person, I've got a friend for life now," said Mrs Coleman-Day.

So, on the eve of her 13th marathon in a year how does Mrs Coleman-Day think her friend will get on?

"I never thought I'd ever get to this point, I thought I'd have given up", she said.

"I don't recommend it - Kate's mad!"

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