Hatti Knight

My motivation for running the Marathon

My dearest friend Ella unexpectedly passed away on the 28th of January 2025 from pneumonia, just days after her 19th birthday. Ella and I had spent our time together playing squash at Durham University and we were always planning for the special times we had ahead of us. 

In the short time I had the privilege to be close to our Ella, she taught me so much, but crucially how to be positive. Ella was a ray of sunshine, put smiles on faces across every room she entered and has left a void in all of our lives. Ella was always asking me to run with her, but I always found an excuse. Therefore, following the inspiration of Scarlett last year I decided to take on this challenge to honour Ella’s wish to join a run club and hopefully do something to make her proud. Ella pushed others to try new things and embrace challenges so I can only hope we are taking this on together. 

Ella was an incredible squash player and has re-instilled my love for the sport. Impressively, Ella also participated in Collingwood netball, mixed lacrosse, and darts. Everything Ella did was with much enthusiasm, and she continues to instil a positive energy in everyone that had the privilege to meet her. With this in mind, this challenge is for Ella. I am attempting to contribute to this charity so no one else has to go through the same devastating loss that stole our beautiful Ella from us and to continue to celebrate our wonderful friend and hopefully prevent such heartbreaks.