Woman adopted age 7 to run London Marathon in memory of birth father she tried to reconnect with ‘too late’

A Bristol woman who was adopted aged seven is running the London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation in memory of her birth father who she tried to reconnect with “literally three-and-a-half months too late”, finding he had passed away months earlier after living with coronary heart disease.

Alicia Powell, 25, has already raised £3,000 for the British Heart Foundation ahead of the 2026 London Marathon, which takes place on Sunday April 26.

She will take on the 26.2 mile race wearing a charity tank top with a photo of her and her birth father pinned to the back, and hopes her fundraising and running would make him proud.

“I like to believe he’s up there somewhere, proud of me and smiling down and really grateful that I’m taking a situation and trying to do something in his legacy,” Alicia told PA Real Life.

“If he was alive today, he probably would be so proud of me.”

Alicia was adopted when she was seven years old, and had a happy, loving and supportive home with her adoptive parents. As she reached adulthood, she began to wonder about her birth parents – who she hadn’t been in contact with since she was adopted – and began to feel that she “would regret it if I didn’t try to reconnect at some point”.

“But I just didn’t feel ready,” she added.

In the summer of 2023, when she was 22 years old, Alicia decided that it was time. After discussing it with her parents, who she said are “very supportive”, she reached out to her birth father on Facebook, having “got to the point where I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m ready, and if I don’t do it now, I don’t think I’ll ever do it’.”

A couple of days passed with no reply, and Alicia began thinking that “something just didn’t feel right – I just felt like there was something more to the situation”. She decided to search his name on Google, which uncovered an article in her birth father’s local paper about a man with the same name of the same age who had passed away on March 23 2023.

“I was literally three-and-a-half months too late… And it was during that time that I was contemplating,” said Alicia.

“I was instantly hit with regret, and everything, really: Anger, regret, sadness, fear, the lot of it, because it’s a very unique situation, and no one gives you a rule book on how to navigate that.”

“I would be lying to say there isn’t a part of me that thinks if only I’d reached out sooner, if only I’d done this, but I logically and realistically know that there’s nothing I could do,” she added.

Alicia was able to connect with her half-brother and cousins from her birth father’s family, and learned more about him and his life through them, which she found solace in.

However, she was left “grieving what could have been”, and struggled with the solitary nature of the unusual situation she found herself in.

In 2025, Alicia found a local support group for adoptees in Bristol and the surrounding areas. She was relieved to find a group of people “who understand that adoption doesn’t just affect you in the here and now, it affects you for life… It’s nice to have that sort of community”.

As Alicia grieved the loss of the birth father she never got to know, she also rekindled a love for running, which she’d started during the Covid lockdowns. In March 2025, she ran the Bath Half Marathon and “got the bug” for races, deciding to try for a charity place in the 2026 London Marathon.

In July 2025, she was accepted to run the marathon for the British Heart Foundation, which she felt was a poignant way to honour her birth father – particularly as she knows his family collected donations for the charity at his funeral – and to turn her grief into something positive.

“It is a cause that is really, really worthwhile,” she said.

“It’s helping a lot of people to get life-saving treatment and to recover from heart attacks, and also spread awareness about cardiovascular disease which affects millions of people.”

According to the British Heart Foundation, every three minutes someone in the UK dies from cardiovascular disease, which affects more than eight million people nationwide.

While training hasn’t been plain sailing, with Alicia battling through injuries including shin splints, she said the process has taught her “the mental part of it, and how to deal with it when something goes wrong”, thanking her friends, family, running coach and physiotherapist for all their support.

“Those are skills that you need in life anyway,” she reflected.

“It’s taken a really tricky situation and made me challenge my way of thinking about it. It’s not all linear. Things come up, things go wrong, but how can you adapt and how can you move forward and do what you can?”

On race day, Alicia will be kitted out in British Heart Foundation clothing, including a charity tank top with a photo of her and her birth father when she was a baby pinned to the back with a sign saying “this one’s for you”, as well as heart-patterned shorts and a heart headband.

She is proud to be doing “something in his legacy”, turning a devastating period of grief into “something really good”.

Alicia’s fundraising page can be found here: justgiving.com/page/aliciaslondonmarathon2026

To sign up to the British Heart Foundation’s 2026 challenges (which include cycling, walking and sea swimming challenges) visit bhf.org.uk/events. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or complete beginner, everyone taking part plays a vital role in helping power BHF’s life-saving research and medical breakthroughs.