A flight attendant is nearing the end of a year-long charity challenge in memory of her best friend, who died of cancer.
Natalie Cole, of Isleworth, has completed a different fundraising mission each month this year in aid of a quartet of charities.
She has been running the series of half-marathons, triathlons and other tests in honour of her late best friend Cheryl Mayes, who died of stomach cancer last November, aged just 33.
The pair had known each other since attending nursery school together in Belfast, and Natalie is godmother to Cheryl's five-year-old son JJ.
Natalie, 33, had completed just one half-marathon and no triathlons before she began the gruelling undertaking in January.
But she said the punishing regime had given her something to focus on as she struggled to cope with the grief.
"It all started when a friend suggested we do a triathlon. I'd been having counselling and doing the triathlon made me feel better," she said.
"All the training gave me something to focus on and I was able to raise money for charities which did so much for Cheryl, so I decided to do something every month for a whole year."
Natalie, who is a senior cabin crew member, has so far completed five triathlons, two half-marathons and two 10km races, among other events, in locations ranging from Abu Dhabi to Windsor.
Having just completed the Trick or Treat 10km race in Richmond on Sunday (November 1), she is gearing up for her 16th and final event of a busy year: the Reindeer Run, in Battersea Park, on December 12 - subject to her work schedule.
She has been raising money for a different charity during each quarter of 2015.
She has already collected more than £3,500 in total for Cancer Research UK, Marie Curie, the hospice Cheryl attended in Northern Ireland, and Macmillan Cancer Support, to which she is donating the proceeds from the last three months of the year.
Of all the challenges so far she says running a Race for Life event in Richmond Park with her young godson was perhaps the hardest, but also the most rewarding.
"It was a very emotional day for both of us. We were both wearing shirts with a photo of Cheryl, and I remember at one point JJ picked up a feather and said 'that's Mummy wishing us good luck for today'," she said.
It's not just physical tasks she's been setting herself. She has just completed Go Sober for October - a commitment which was not made any easier by the nature of her job.
"I've just got back from Jamaica where I had to make do with water while the rest of the cabin crew were sipping cocktails," she said.
* You can sponsor Natalie at https://www.justgiving.com/Natalie-Cole10/?utm_id=26 .
