Mum’s comfort as hundreds to run in memory of Moira
RUNNERS honouring murdered Moira Jones will this year be filmed crossing the finishing line for a new documentary at the tenth anniversary of her death.
The annual Moira’s Run sees hundreds gather in Queen’s Park for the 5k race to raise funds for The Moira Fund.
Always emotional, this year’s event will be made more poignant as it comes in the tenth year since her body was found in the park.
But Moira’s mum, Bea, said she and husband, Hugh, and son, Grant, take comfort from the race.
She said: “I don’t feel like Bea Jones looking on, I feel part of it, I feel part of the community and that means a lot.
“It makes us feel like we know Moira felt about Glasgow.”
Moira Fund patrons Dame Elish Angiolini and Elaine C Smith will both be there on Sunday, October 28 for the event.
It is being filmed as part of a documentary about The Moira Fund, which supports people bereaved by murder, being produced by Glasgow Films for release in 2019.
Documentary maker Alex McCall said: “It was incredibly brave of Beatrice to agree to read from her own deeply personal and profound journal directly to camera about the horrific rape and murder of her daughter.
“As the filming progressed I had a feeling that she was talking directly to Moira, seeking answers to her innermost thoughts and concerns.
“Her story is an intensely personal one about a 10-year journey into the deepest depths of desolation and despair with no hope of acceptance or closure.
“But she hopes that by sharing her experiences it would ease her pain and, at the same time, help other people.
“The Moira Fund and the Run serves the same purpose and that is why it is so important to Beatrice.”
While the anniversary has been extremely hard on the Jones family, Bea said there have also been positives from the year.
She said: “This has been a very hard year for us.
“I knew it would be but didn’t know just what it would mean.
“This has been a year with positives as well, such as the funding from the Scottish Government for a new victim support service in homicide cases announced in April.
“A lot of people were aware it was the tenth anniversary year and so I had mixed emotions about the press coverage because every positive piece still mentioned what had happened to Moira and that is always painful to read.
“The anniversary took us back and, to be honest, we were re-traumatised.”
She is now looking forward to the run. Bea added: “People don’t have to say anything, we can feel their warmth and to me, that is extra special because one of the wonderful things about Moira was how she made you feel.
“She made you feel better about yourself and people say that doing this run makes them feel good about themselves.
“So that really, comforts me.” really