Miss Southampton Running City Half-marathon for General Hospital’s Cancer Ward

Some of you know why I have been a little absent of recent, and I just wanted to say a big thank you to the Hampshire community, friends and family for helping me through a horrible few months.

However, I am using my title and my will to look at the positive and hopefully help others. Please find below a press release I am sending to local newspapers which, fingers crossed, will increase donations to the Miss World charity and also Southampton General Hospital.

Beauty with a Purpose (BWAP) helps countless amounts of children around the world, and their local communities. From supplying water, to building houses, supplying books and holidays, BWAP is a truly unique charity that has even been acknowledged by the late Nelson Mandela at the 2011 Miss World finals in London. Miss Hampshire 2015 contestants will be raising money for this charity, so I appreciate your help ladies on spreading the word on all our campaigns!

I’ll be running the first ever Southampton half-marathon in April 2015 for the Hamwic Ward; where 80% of chemotherapy patients at Southampton General Hospital receive their treatment. My boyfriend of more than three years, Ian Palmer, aged just 26, an employee at VES in Eastleigh( and a former winner of the Contribution to Sport award at Southampton Solent University,) was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October this year.

Since his diagnosis Southampton General has been amazing with his care and recovery. He had surgery not even a week after diagnosis, and received his first, and fingers crossed last, chemotherapy treatment in early December. We are hoping for an all clear in February this year when he has his follow up appointment.

I’m really hoping to raise awareness of a disease that is surprisingly prevalent in the young and fit. After raising money for Naomi House, the RNLI and the Miss World charity; Beauty with a Purpose, I wanted to keep raising funds for good causes, and the work the hospital carries out is inspirational, so we both wanted to help.

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Context:

I’m a Journalist from the city centre, (near Bedford Place) and a graduate from Southampton Solent University. I was crowned Miss Southampton in March after missing out on the Hampshire win by one point, which went to Charlotte Giles from Twickenham.

As runner up I was offered a place in the Miss England semi-finals, where I was one of the 10 out of 80 contestants that qualified for the grand final. I was the first Southampton representative to qualify for the nationals since 2010. Since then I have ran the Alton 10 road race and the Southampton Colour Run, as well as placed in the top group for Talent in this year’s Miss England competition, by bellydancing.