A MOTHER and her two daughters decided to run the London Marathon in memory of their friend who died from meningitis.

Kalvinder Bahra, 47, and her daughters Ravina, 20, and Benita, 18, raised nearly £1,000 for the Meningitis Research Foundation.

The trio completed the marathon on Sunday, April 23, in just under six and a half hours. They had planned to run it with family friend Paawan Purba but sadly the 20-year-old passed away last August.

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Benita represented Waltham Forest in the 2013 Youth Games hockey championships. She is a student at Woodford County High School in Woodford Green while Ravina is studying law at the University of Essex.

Mrs Bahra of Goodmayes said although there were times when she thought of quitting, she and her daughters wanted to finish the marathon for Paawan.

Mrs Bahra said: “When I hit mile 11 I was thinking of quitting because it was so difficult but I thought I’ve got to finish it for Paawan.

“Just the thought of her kept me going. So I went to the ambulance and took painkillers for my back and my knee and I carried on and finished it. I think out of the four of us it would have been Paawan there encouraging me and carrying me through.

“It is still really emotional for us all. She was just like a daughter to me and we were all really close to her and her family.

“Last year we all went to watch the marathon together and after seeing the buzz of it we decided we would run it the following year.”

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Paawan’s family were among the supporters who turned out on Sunday to cheer the girls on. The pharmacology student at the University of East London died just two days after developing flu-like symptoms.

Paawan of Hounslow died from a strain of Men W. University students are entitled to a free meningitis ACWY vaccine on the NHS but Paawan was not made aware of this by her doctor.

Mrs Bahra is now working to raise awareness about the vaccine and the signs to look out for.

She said: “We wanted to raise money for the foundation but also raise awareness about the meningitis vaccine. A lot of university students don’t know about it.

“Know the signs is really important because it is so easy to mistake meningitis for the flu.

“Just a few weeks after Paawan passed away Ravina had to start uni and that was difficult for her. It’s a lot for a young person to deal with when someone their own age passes away.”

Cases of Men W have been on the increase in the UK in recent years.

According to Public Health England, in 2009 there were just 22 cases of the strain and last year the figure had risen to 209.