Emelia Legget, 24, will be tackling her first full marathon, and her elder brother, George, 29, has entered the half, to raise money for Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand (NECNZ). Their deeds are in honour of their dad, Dr Malcolm Legget, a cardiologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland, who lost a 13-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer on November 1.
He was farewelled at a service in Auckland on Tuesday.
The pair are following in the footsteps of brother Harry, 27, who ran the Auckland Marathon on November 3 — having barely trained — proudly wearing a "Marathons for Malcolm" T-shirt their dad organised before his death.
Dr Legget was a graduate of the University of Otago and then worked at Dunedin Hospital for about a decade.
Dr Legget was diagnosed in 2011 and three years later joined the NECNZ board, spending a decade working with the foundation to spearhead the transformation of neuroendocrine cancer care in New Zealand.
He became a lead actor in ensuring the best treatments possible for the cancer are available to all New Zealanders, leading a programme of work and fundraising more than $7million to bring expertise, research and treatment which had not been available in the public health system.
It means others who receive a neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis will not have to travel overseas to receive care as he did.
Ms Legget said the family was fortunate her "mum and dad were able to afford for him to travel to Australia and get that scan and then, eventually, get treatment over there".
"There are so many other Kiwis that wouldn’t be able to afford that, and wouldn’t have that opportunity, therefore their life would have been shorter."
That experience led Dr Legget to fundraise, lobby and campaign on behalf of all New Zealanders to ensure better outcomes here.
Now, his children are lending their support, too.
Ms Legget, who will graduate from the University of Otago’s medical school next month, said they initially hoped to raise $2000 for NECNZ.
To date, they had raised over $60,400 and had now stretched their target to $100,000.
"It’s so amazing," she said.
"Our goal is to contribute to at least one other clinical nurse specialist — that was something that was really important to Dad. He spent a lot of time with the clinical nurse specialist for NECs here [in Auckland] and she does a lot of important work."
As to how she felt ahead of her 42.2km jaunt in Queenstown tomorrow, with Harry as her support crew, Ms Legget said she planned to "just take it slow and have a lot of fun".
"My goal from the start has always been just to finish it."
Queenstown marathon
• More than 12,500 entrants over five distances.
• More than 3000 in the full marathon; all-time high and largest marathon field in the country.
• Women make up 58% of the field; average age of 38.
• Youngest runner 5, oldest 88.
• 73% of participants are first timers to the event.
• 89% of participants are from outside Queenstown Lakes.
• Entrants represent 91 different countries.
• International athletes make up 28% of entries.
• 44 Founding Runners will return to the event this year.
• Expected to bring in $20 million in economic benefit to the region.
• 700 volunteers.
