Remembering Daisy at the Royal Parks Half
For the third year running we had a Reverse Rett team in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October which is Rett Syndrome Awareness Month.
This year’s run took place on October 12th and we had 11 runners who raised over £5000!
One person has been a constant in the team for the past 3 years. Emily Marsden, whose daughter, Daisy, sadly lost her fight with Rett syndrome in 2024. This year was the second time Emily has run the Royal Parks since losing Daisy.
Emily takes up the story, “Rett Syndrome took everything from Daisy and eventually took Daisy from us.
We signed up to The Royal Parks Half Marathon last year not knowing we’d be doing it without Daisy here.
I didn’t feel like running but I forced myself, to help keep Daisy’s memory alive and to continue to support Reverse Rett.
It doesn’t get any easier waking up each day without her. We all miss her incredibly. We ran the Royal Parks again this year because I genuinely believe there is a better future for those living with Rett Syndrome and I want to help with that.
I hate to think of other families losing their child like we did. We were thinking of Daisy more than usual on the run.“
Emily was joined on the start line by Daisy’s dad, Dave, her sister, Jennie and her brother-in-law, Ian who made sure everybody knew Daisy’s name with his awesome running attire.
We also had dads Stewart Morris, Nick Cardy and Phil Duncalfe who were running for their daughter’s, Penny, Maddy and Rosalie.
We had siblings, Amber Cardy and Francesca Wilson, who also had her friend, Zoe Gladwin running with her, inspired by Maddy and Rhianna.
Huge thanks to all our runners who committed a huge chunk of time to training for the run then completing it without any mishaps.
We hope to have a Reverse Rett team again next year so if you’re interested in joining it then please contact Andy Stevenson at [email protected] or on WhatsApp on 07513 779834.
If you prefer walking rather than running then check out this link to our team challenges for 2026