Seven months ago, Sarah Cotton ran in the Victoria Marathon with her daughters by her side.
In May she’ll run Vancouver’s half marathon with her little girls in her heart.
Her daughters Chloe, 6, and Aubrey, 4, were killed Christmas Day. Their father, Andrew Berry, has been charged in their deaths.
In her first statement of any length since the killings, Cotton posted a message online Wednesday to raise money on behalf of her daughters. The money will be split between a scholarship fund and a child-abuse prevention and counselling program.
“On Christmas Day, my beloved girls were taken from me,” Cotton wrote.
The Oak Bay mother said she, her family, friends, her community and people around the world “are devastated, shocked and overwhelmed with grief at this senseless and futile tragedy.”
As a way to cope with the grief, Cotton said she has at times chosen to run through it rather than be paralyzed by it. Her first run after her children’s death was Jan. 6.
Now she plans to run in the May 6 BMO Vancouver Half Marathon “as part of my healing and in honour of my girls.”
“I know that they will be running alongside us in spirit,” Cotton said.
In grief counselling, Cotton was advised that it’s good to “keep in motion” and let grief release.
In the first 21 hours, more than $16,000 had been raised through Cotton’s fundraising site, at GoFundMe.com/chloe-amp-aubrey-memorial-fund.
Cotton is overwhelmed by the response since posting her fundraising appeal on Wednesday, said friend and spokeswoman Trisha Lees.
“It’s hard to understand the scope to which it’s touched people.”
The funds raised will be divided between the existing Chloe and Aubrey Berry Scholarship Fund at Christ Church Cathedral School, which has raised more than $30,000 to date, and the Mary Manning Centre for child abuse prevention and counselling.
Christ Church is where Chloe attended Grade 1 and where Aubrey would have started kindergarten in September.
At the non-profit Mary Manning, therapy and victim services are provided for children and youth in Greater Victoria who have experienced abuse.
Cotton and Berry separated as a couple in 2013. The girls received counselling in 2017, the last year before their deaths, and that helped the girls immensely, Lees said.
“My hope is that through raising money for this important organization, waitlists can be reduced and access to counselling is more immediate,” wrote Cotton.
Lees and Cotton are long-time runners. Running provides a healthy outlet for grief, said Lees. “It’s a very long road but at this point she’s doing as well as possible, Lees said of Cotton. “She’s remarkably strong, and shown great poise and dignity through this. What matters to her most is that the girls aren’t forgotten and that they are honoured in a really positive way and that perhaps this terrible circumstance can help other people.”
Race day could be another step in the mother’s healing journey, but it could also be highly emotional. It was only in October that she ran with her girls in the 1.5 km Thrifty Foods Kids Run as part of the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon.
“There’s this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger and your whispers softly echo, it's the place where part of you will forever be a part of me,” Cotton wrote of her daughters.
“Sarah is a very brave person,” said Lees. “If it’s important enough to her she’s willing to put herself out there.”
