Widow Ran Marathon in Wedding Dress on Her Anniversary to Raise Awareness for Blood Cancer: 'What Better Way to Honor the Day'
A woman in England ran her 13th marathon in a year to raise money for a cancer charity — and she did it while wearing her wedding dress
Laura Coleman-Day told the BBC that she ran the London Marathon on April 27 to raise money for the leukemia charity Anthony Nolan after the death of her husband Xander
"I didn't want anybody else to go through what me and my son have gone through," she said
A woman in England whose husband died of blood cancer ran a marathon in his honor — and crossed the finish line wearing her wedding gown.
Speaking with the BBC for an interview published on Sunday, April 27 — the day of the London Marathon — 33-year-old Laura Coleman-Day shared that she would running the race in the white dress in celebration of her sixth wedding anniversary. The stunt also served as a fundraiser for the U.K. leukemia charity Anthony Nolan.
In addition, one of Coleman-Day's friends, Kate Walford, who lost a close friend to blood cancer, joined her for the race.
"I thought what better way to honor the day and honor [Xander] than crossing the line in my wedding dress, so Kate and I are going to stop at mile 23 and put my wedding dress on," she told the BBC ahead of the marathon. "I just can't wait. It's going to be really hard, but also just such a massive achievement."
The London Marathon wasn't Coleman-Day's first race in the past year. Sunday's event marked the widow's 13th marathon in 12 months, all of which she ran to raise money for stem cell research into blood cancer.
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Coleman-Day, originally from Lincolnshire, England, married her husband Xander in 2019, and the couple welcomed a son named Amos a few years later. She told local outlet Lincolnshire Live last week that Xander had begun complaining about aches and pains, and by 2022, doctors had diagnosed him with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (or ALL) — a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow, per the Mayo Clinic.
Although Xander underwent treatment and was declared cancer-free in December 2022, he soon experienced a recurrence of the disease, Coleman-Day told the outlet. Although her husband — a Royal Air Force aerospace battle manager — remained optimistic, the cancer eventually took his life in February 2024 when he was 36. Their son was 2 years old at the time.
According to Coleman-Day, doctors had found during Xander's treatment process that he carried a rare genetic anomaly called the Philadelphia chromosome, which requires a stem cell transplant for the best chance at survival.
Coleman-Day and Walford met through Anthony Nolan — which researches stem cell transplantation — and quickly decided to embark on a mission to run 12 marathons in 12 months to fundraise for the organization.
"They were doing a lot of research into post-transplant, and I didn't want anybody else to go through what me and my son have gone through," Coleman-Day told the BBC.
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Related: Parents of 6-Year-Old Told to 'Wait It Out' After Doctors Dismissed Leukemia Symptoms as 'Usual Bug Going Around'
Although she only planned on running 12 marathons — the equivalent of nearly 315 miles — over the course of a year, she decided to do a "bonus" 13th race on April 6 in Guernsey, where Walford is originally from.
Walford, who ran the London Marathon (her second of 12 so far) on behalf of her friend of 30 years Mark, who died in 2018, told the BBC that she wanted to do the race to honor him — even if she didn't consider herself a runner before this.
"I'd always tried running, but hated it and would get to a couple of miles and think, 'No, I'm rubbish at this, I'll stop', " she said, before opening up about Mark, who was also godfather to her son. "We did have a final conversation where he said, 'You've got to carry on raising money, raising the profile and helping more people,' and that's where it started."
"He was a very special person. We miss him every day," she added.
According to the two women, fundraising for this deeply personal cause has given them something irreplaceable.
"I've got a friend for life now," Coleman-Day said.
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