A CHEMOTHERAPY nurse from Tavistock who tragically lost her seven-year-old nephew to cancer is running the London Marathon to raise funds for research into childhood cancers.

Deirdre Stapleton, who has two children of her own, is raising money for the charity Children with Cancer UK, a research and support charity.

She lost her nephew Conor during the pandemic, and because of the covid restrictions was unable to travel home to Cork in southern Ireland to attend his funeral.

Running the marathon was a way of channelling her grief into something positive, she said.

‘Conor got diagnosed in 2019 with incurable cancer and was given a year to live. I’m a chemotherapy nurse so I knew it was going to be horrendous. He and his parents and brother were told to go home and make memories. He was just a wonderful child. He died in April 2020 and that was when we went into lockdown and so I couldn’t go back to Ireland for his funeral.

‘That was a huge thing, so I have fully dealt with it, I have always carried on, so I feel running this marathon it will bring me something. It is very strange to explain it, but it is comforting. I feel when I am running that he is with me.’

She said she was aiming for a marathon time of five hours, which was the journey time Conor had to make from his family home in rural Cork to the hospital for his radiotherapy sessions, two and a half hours there and two and a half hours back.

‘My aim is to run the London Marathon in five hours. It is all very relatable. I work with cancer every day and adults with cancer are now surviving longer but with the cancer Conor had, research has not moved on. I want to raise awareness that it happens and raise money for research.

‘This is about bringing some hope. It is trying to do something a bit positive with my grief, I feel I am managing my grief through running.’

Deirdre has never run a marathon distance before, so she is committing quite a bit of time to her schedule, training with ace runner Ben Neale, of Tavistock Athletic Club, four times a week, including track sessions with their athletes on Friday nights. She is juggling this alongside working at the RD&E Hospital in Exeter and studying for a masters in nursing as well as being mum to two children aged eight and three.

She has lived in the UK for 15 years, having moved to London to work in nursing and meeting and marrying an Englishman. Conor has an older brother Ruarri in Ireland, who is 12.

Deirdre is holding a charity quiz night at Too Hoppy on Vigo Bridge in Tavistock on February 4 at 8pm with a friend. Deirdre is aiming to raise £2,000 for Children with Cancer UK. To sponsor her, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/deirdre-stapleton