A MOTHER-of-two from Bournemouth has raised nearly £60K in one year for the charity Myeloma UK.

Kerry Baggott's husband Jeremy, died in November 2020 at the age of 50, from the incurable blood cancer myeloma.

Last year, Kerry and her daughters, Charlotte, 15 and Emily, 13, pledged to raise £50,000 in his memory for the charity Myeloma UK.

One year later, they have smashed their target, raising more than £58,000.

Kerry and her daughters took part in a number of fundraising challenges to reach their goal including a 26-mile walk along the South West Coast Path and running a half marathon.

Kerry who lives in Alum Chine, said: “I set the target at £50,000, that was going to be my ultimate goal and it was potentially going to take years to meet that, so I'm just astounded that I've done it in just over a year.

"I set the Just Giving page up just a few days before Jeremy's funeral and reaching that target was probably the best New Year and Christmas present I could ever have wished for, I'm just astounded with the love that's being shown to myself and the girls and the love to Jeremy as well.

"He was such a fun, likeable, energetic person and I think everybody who new Jeremy, he made a massive impact on them, so this has really warmed my heart.”

Myeloma occurs in the bone marrow and currently affects over 24,000 people in the UK.

Despite being the third most common type of blood cancer, it is especially difficult to detect as symptoms, including back pain, easily broken bones, fatigue and recurring infection, are often linked to general ageing or minor conditions.

More than half of patients face a wait of over five months to receive the right diagnosis and around a third are diagnosed through an emergency route. By that point, many of them are experiencing severe or life-threatening symptoms.

Kerry said: "Our ultimate goal is that there will be a cure one day or at least a treatment that will elongate peoples lives and only a couple of days ago there was a report that came out to say that they found a great drug combination for people with very aggressive myeloma which is what my husband had.

"This goes to show that the charity is making such great strides and research into this disease is really moving forward at such a great pace and whilst for me that does make me feel incredibly sad because I know that Jeremy has missed out, going forward we can help treat it.

"There's great strides being mad in the myeloma community and the comments from those people have been so wonderful."

In the future Kerry is looking to continue fundraising and raising awareness for Myeloma UK.

She said: "It's not something I can just sit back and say that's it, my job's done now, myeloma will always be a part of my life now. I will always feel this need to fight it, I will always be fighting against multiple myeloma, so to do that positively I will always be fundraising and raising awareness.

"Thank you to everybody for their support and their love and for reaching out to us. Asking people for money never sits well with me, that's probably the hardest thing I've found but the money that goes to this charity is so well spent and I think that we can definitely see that, with the strides that they're making with research and new drugs coming out, so I just want people to rest assured that the money that goes to this small charity for this very rare cancer is really well spent."

To make a donation to Kerry's JustGiving page and help them continue their fundraising for Myeloma UK visit https://justgiving.com/fundraising/kerry-baggott2