Shoreham runner completes 12 half marathons in 12 months to raise awareness of secondary breast cancer in memory of a dear friend

Veronica Sullivan, 61, from Shoreham has been running a half marathon each month since her friend Louise Lydon-James died suddenly last September aged 45.

She is raising money for the charity Secondary1st to help fund medical research to treat secondary breast cancer and, just as importantly, continuing Louise's campaign to raise awareness of the condition.

Veronica said: "My dear friend lost her battle with cancer not much more than a year after being given the 'all-clear' following five clear mammograms, yet then to find she had secondary breast cancer in her bones and liver.

"She began a campaign to raise awareness of this. More needs to be done to allow people to be finding this out early enough to be treated. No-one should lose their life this young and we now continue Lou's battle for more awareness in her memory.

"She was hard working, enthusiastic about life and she knew a lot of people. We couldn't understand how it could happen, she was riddled with it. Why aren't they looking? She had mammograms every year but not a full body scan."

Louise's sons Toby and Jack and their friends ran the final mile with Veronica, finishing at Ropetackle in Shoreham on Saturday afternoon.

Veronica said her friend was a well-known travel counsellor in Brighton and Hove who was feeling excited for the future, despite her condition.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2015 but treatment was successful. She had been given the all-clear, so was completely unaware she had secondary breast cancer.

When she started getting back pain, she thought it was muscular, as she believed she was cancer free. It was not until October 2020 that secondary breast cancer was diagnosed and Louise was given chemotherapy, which seemed to be working.

Veronica said: "She was an amazing character. She was getting stronger. She was really excited and suddenly everything looked like it was going okay. She was looking forward to the future."

Louise and their friend Jane went on a two-week holiday in September 2021 – a holiday Veronica would have joined had she not been running the rescheduled Brighton Marathon.

Veronica said: "They came back on the Friday. She went into hospital on the Monday and died on the Wednesday morning, September 29.

"Only weeks before, she put out a notice about the fact secondary breast cancer kills more people than breast cancer. I decided to run a half marathon every month for 12 month to continue to raise awareness."Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Veronica-Sullivan4 to make a donation to support Veronica.

Secondary breast cancer is when cancer cells in the breast spread to other parts of the body via the blood stream, lymph system, or body cavities. It is called secondary (metastatic) breast cancer and these new tumours are made up of breast cancer cells.

The mission of Secondary1st is to help fund research into the prevention, diagnosis and causes of secondary (metastatic) breast cancer and the development of more effective treatments.