Many of you will remember my sister Deborah who lived her life at twice the speed of most and lived half as long, leaving us after a spirited fight with breast cancer ten years ago in April 2004.

Some of you, sadly a much smaller number, will remember my brother Matthew, who died in a car accident just over 30 years ago. He was 17, had very lately made the move from geek to cool, and had just won a scholarship to Oxford to read PPE.

Like everyone who loses people close to them, my family live with their loss every day, but I love talking to them all about my siblings' funny, difficult and brilliant lives. Their stupid jokes, their traits we can see in my daughters, niece and nephew - and how I still feel my sister whispering in my ear every time I go clothes shopping.

They were not defined by their deaths, and our memories make them a little bit immortal.

I'm very lucky to have Deborah's lovely daughter Clemmy staying with us for a while, and together we hatched a plan to do something positive and raise money for charity to remember them on the anniversary of DK's death.

So on Saturday April 5th Clem and I are starting out where Deborah is buried, at the Memorial Woodlands near Thornbury, walking right through Bristol, our home city, over the Suspension Bridge, past our old school in Backwell and out to Yatton where we all grew up, and where Matthew is buried, a distance of approx 23 miles. On the way we'll be taking selfies, remembering teenage triumphs and disasters and (we hope) raising a wedge for our chosen charities.

See our training (ahem!) updates at https://www.facebook.com/events/261110067380591/?source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular

So why am I fundraising for Mentoring Plus? It's a Bath-based charity I'm doing some work for, so I can see first-hand the amazing impact it has on teenagers who need extra support with school, family or behaviour.

It matches vulnerable young people with trained volunteer mentors from their own community, who help celebrate their strengths, raise their aspirations and help them choose a positive path. In the 2-minute video attached our young people explain what mentors mean to them. Please drop me a line for more details.

Even those who knew Deborah in her Issey Miyake years may not be aware she had a fairly wayward stage as a teenager herself. She always remembered advice from adults to whom she would actually listen - among them Jo Nelki, Gill Middleton, and teachers including David Howe and Stephen Bennion - and how they helped her perceive her full potential, gain her Cambridge place and go on to a very successful career culminating at UBS in the City.

(I should add she had entirely supportive, caring parents at the time. She just didn't listen to them.)

In turn this helped get me to university, as she took me in hand herself, taking me to student parties and helping me see this was a place that belonged to teenagers who went clubbing at Papillons (good times!) just as much as Annabel's. Mentoring in action.

Clemmy has chosen to fundraise for NSPCC, for which Deborah worked in the 1990s. Both are excellent causes for young people who just need a chance to fulfil their potential. 

So please think of us as we build up our thigh muscles over the next couple of months, and please support my fundraising with a donation so I can't back out of it. THANK YOU!

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