Dear friends and family,

Yes you have read this correctly!  I have been donning the running shoes in preparation of this event on the 20th September 2009 to help raise money for Alex, my half brother in law to visit the States and receive the treatment he needs.

Alex has a rare form of brain tumour - an astrocytoma of an unknown kind. His doctors have advised that he needs to have Proton Beam Therapy to remove the tumour without causing collateral damage to the rest of his brain. However there are no facilities in the UK for provision of Proton Beam Therapy for anything other than eye tumours. This is despite the fact that about 1400 people a year in the UK would benefit from the treatment.

The NHS currently funds about 40 people a year to go to centres around the world. Sadly Alex is not one of these 40 as his tumour is very rare and therefore does not meet the strict diagnostic criteria that they have set. He has been referred to the Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which is one of the leading centres for Proton Beam Therapy and the cost of the treatment is likely to be £150,000.

After a series of operations in 2001 & 2003 for the removal of tumours from his brain and spine, Alex ran two London Marathons in 2004/05 raising nearly £20,000 for the Brain and Spine Foundation. Now he needs our help!!

A donation however small ......or large, would be so appreciated, here is the web page:- (www.justgiving.com/iamrunningforalex).

Huge thanks in advance,

Love Emma and Alex

xxx