Breaking The Taboos Amelia & Ria's Healing Steps

The Shorty stars put in a marathon effort

- Fleur Mealing

When Amelia Reid-Meredith and Ria Vandervis say they’ve been training hard together for their upcoming half-marathon, what they really mean is they’ve been drinking a lot of sauvignon blanc.

The Shortland Street stars giggle as they confess their preparation has not exactly gone to plan since late last year, when they decided to compete in next month’s Saint Clair Half Marathon in Marlborough.

But don’t think for a second that their lack of training means the pair – best friends since they met on the set of the TVNZ 2 soap five years ago – don’t care about the race. In fact, they’re taking part to support a cause very dear to their hearts.

In May 2017, Amelia’s mum Robyn Reid lost her five-year battle with bowel cancer and this year’s marathon – which raises funds for the charity Beat Bowel Cancer – will take place almost a year to the day she passed away.

“We’re doing it in honour of Mum and however we finish, we’ll be thinking about her journey each step of the way,” says Amelia, 31, who left Shorty in 2016 to nurse her dying mother. “It’s going to be a really hard, emotional run, but this is just a tiny thing we can do to honour her memory.”