The daughter of a former award-winning Daily Mirror reporter who died of leukaemia is running the London Marathon in his memory.
Hope Merritt, 26, is also taking part in the race this weekend in honour of her older sister, Ellie, who died at aged nine of the same disease just six years after their father.
Hope’s mum, Lindsay, was pregnant with her when John died at age 35 in 1992.
Hope, who works as a chef in the Midlands, knew her late sister Ellie for only a few years of her life. Her elder sister was just 18 months old when John was diagnosed, and is buried alongside him.
John’s friend and former Mirror colleague Alastair Campbell raised half a million pounds for the same leukaemia charity, Bloodwise, when he ran the marathon in 2003.
In an incredibly cruel twist of fate, leukaemia isn’t thought to be hereditary, despite it hitting the same family twice in such a short space of time.
Hope, who is Alastair's goddaughter, says: “It’s having them in my mind that’s almost going to make the run a bit easier. I have definitely noticed that when I do start to think about them, I am not as tired.
“Alastair is very encouraging and says he knows I will do it. And him knowing that gives me the confidence to know that I will probably be fine.
“I feel I have got part of my dad’s nature – without actually having known him.
“I also think knowing how adventurous and courageous he was makes me push myself to do certain things.”
Remembering her sister’s death – her illness developed after the pair got colds, which Ellie never recovered from – Hopes says: “When Ellie died, I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write, I stopped growing. My nails didn’t grow for a solid year after she died.”
Hope’s mum Lindsay says Hope was given her name because “that’s what she is”.
The former magazine editor says: “We really thought John would beat it and we would be a family of four, and Ellie and Hope would grow up as sisters.”
• To support Hope, visit it her JustGiving page here:
