MY wife, daughter, sister-in-law and her female friend all took part in Cancer Research's 'Race For Life' fun run event at Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury at the weekend - despite searing heat.
The first thing that struck me was how much bigger the event was from what I had imagined it would be, by at least 100 times.
Initially, I had thought that I would just drive us all up to a small car park and the runners (my wife and daughter in our car) would get out and run around a modest track.
In the end, however, the day was much more massive with 3,000 runners taking part and the event, in beautiful surroundings, was like arriving and departing from an airport with dozens of park-and-ride coaches taking us back and forth.
On their backs, runners were encouraged to give written tributes and even show pictures of loved ones that had died or were suffering from cancer.
These were the ones, after all, that had probably motivated them to run.
In the beginning, I took great interest in reading scores of these and the photographs and praises for 'Mum' or 'Dad' were quite diverting.
But then I began to notice written and pictorial tributes to younger people who had also been claimed by the disease.
There were so many.
However, it was the picture of a handsome, brave, smiling teenage boy that eventually did it for me.
Something in the tribute made it certain he was dead.
An overweight, distracted, middle-aged woman was carrying his picture on her back as she set out alone on a difficult, unpleasant, sweltering run.
I realised she must be his mother.
How terribly sad.
But, also, in a strange way, how inspiring.