After completing her 12th Great North Run, Ryton's Becky Ellerton is more than halfway through a year of challenges in honour of her late grandmother who died on Boxing Day last year due to gallbladder cancer.
Becky, 31, is a paediatric doctor at the RVI. After her grandma Marjorie's death she decided that, because Marjorie would have turned 90 this year she would attempt nine fitness challenges for Macmillan Cancer Support over 2022 - one for each decade she lived.
So far, this has included an ultra-marathon in Keswick, a duathlon at Derwent Reservoir and the Durham Coastal Half Marathon Trail. However, the Great North Run is one of Becky's favourite events. Afterwards, Becky - who has a 20-month-old baby Charlie with husband Matthew, added: "I've been full of cold so I didn't quite get the time I was aiming for but it was amazing. This was my 12th time.
"It was my grandma's 90th birthday in March this year. So this year I want to do nine events for her. The Great North Run was my fifth, next I'm swimming Windermere on Saturday. I like running but I had never done a duathlon or much swimming before. I'd done an ultra-marathon before but not on my own!"
"She was my best friend. I used to go and spend holidays with her. We were always really close. I would speak to her almost every day. She was always there if I had had a bad day. It was really hard to hear her diagnosis, I was definitely just her granddaughter in that moment not a doctor. She lived in Stoke-on-Trent and she’d been planning to move up here to be nearer, but events overtook us.
"She became noticeably more tired, had a blood clot in her leg and was admitted to hospital for a ruptured gallbladder before being diagnosed with gallbladder cancer."
Becky said she had wanted to give back to charities like Macmillan, which had helped NHS staff and her grandmother's local hospice to keep her comfortable in her final days. She added: "It’s also an opportunity to get the message out there for people not to hesitate and go to the doctors as soon as possible if they’ve been experiencing unexplained symptoms. Things like fatigue, weight loss can often form part of a picture and it’s better to go the doctors and be proved wrong than leave it until it’s too late."
Becky has also helped organise fundraising events in the Gateshead area - including at Swalwell Cricket Club where friend Sharon Reed is bar manager. Sharon herself has emotional reasons for backing Macmillan. She lost cousin to cancer aged just 39, while two aunts were also killed by the disease.
Sharon added: "Becky and I are close, and we’ve known each since she worked for me when she was 18 in her first bar job. She’s now 31 and has a beautiful family and is a paediatric doctor it is amazing what she’s achieved since I first met her. Losing people is so hard and I’ve lost many family members and Becky was very close to her gran, so it’s hit us both hard and we’ve thrown ourselves into fundraising for Macmillan.”
Support Becky's fundraising for Macmillan here.
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