An inspirational fundraising teen from Walthamstow, Molly Elliott, is calling for the support of her community to help her raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity who cared for her beloved Grandad before he died.
19-year-old Molly, who has previously raised over £5k by running a 10k and a marathon for Macmillan last year, is fundraising once more to support people affected by cancer by again running the London Marathon, and holding a Coffee Morning as part of Macmillan’s flagship fundraising event.
Molly, who studies at Epping Forest College and is a football coach said: “My Granddad, or Baccy as I have always called him, was my best friend – words will never be able to justify how incredible he was. He was funny, kind, gentle and clever.
“He was the glue of our family and so all four of us this year have decided to come together to raise money for this incredible charity who were there for our family and our Grandad through the toughest of times. It’s the least we could do to say thank you.”
On 21 December 2018, Molly’s granda, Ron Searle, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, which is a terminal form of asbestos cancer. He chose, with the whole family’s support, to just have pain relief as there was no cure and was supported by a Macmillan nurse until he sadly died just under a year later.
Molly, Paul Elliott (Molly’s brother), Aaron Clifton (Molly’s boyfriend) and Jay Searle (Molly’s brother-in-law) will be taking on the challenge of running the 2022 London Marathon together on Sunday 2nd October. Training for the marathon is going well but not as well as the group had planned.
Molly said: “We’ve done as much training as we can but we’re all carrying separate injuries that have made it a struggle – but we’re hoping the reason why we’ve decided to run the marathon, will be what gets us through the full 26.2 miles!
“We’ve been trying really hard to reach our fundraising goal and just held a Macmillan Coffee Morning which we opened up to the whole area. It was perfect – it was a day where everyone came together to celebrate what an amazing man my Grandad was. We had pictures of him up everywhere to show the reason why we were holding the coffee morning. We raised over £400 for Macmillan which was incredible and this will go towards our fundraising target for the London Marathon.
Andrew Gould, Macmillan Fundraising Manager, added: “Molly and her family are such an inspiration. Grandad Ron would be so proud at the lengths they’re going to, to honour him. Please do sponsor them if you can or, if you’ve been affected by cancer but draw the line at a marathon, it’s not too late to hold or attend a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan.”
Macmillan’s Coffee Morning is an annual event dedicated to bringing everyone together over a cuppa to raise vital funds for people living with cancer. The official Coffee Morning date this year is Friday 30 September but you can hold yours whenever you like. Every Coffee Morning has the power to raise vital pennies and pounds. Whether it’s with your pals in the park, a virtual coffee morning or a great gathering, Macmillan will help you rise to the occasion.
You can sponsor Molly via her Just Giving page or to get involved in Macmillan Coffee Morning, visit: https://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/
