Thank you for visiting my Shine fundraising page in support of breast cancer research. Please dig deep and sponsor me – it’s quick, easy and totally secure.

Cancer Research UK is funded entirely by amazing supporters like you. By sponsoring me you can help more people survive cancer.

Originally we signed up for the walk after hearing my closest friend Kate had been given the all clear. I felt it important to show her she had never been alone, that we’d always been walking with her and would never stop. Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer, a particularly rare and aggressive variety in February 2011 a month after her daughter Ida’s first birthday and the day before the funeral of our wonderful friend Izzy Fletcher (nee Allen) who sadly lost her fight with cancer after an enormous battle. After thinking we had survived everything our mid twenties had to throw at us (including cows in the street!), things felt pretty bleak at that time. 18 months later, surgeries, chemo, radiation, lots of chocolate, matching one pieces, a couple of very cold trips to Norway, hospital dashes, some pop up books, one amazing pumpkin outfit and an awful lot more and Kate is well. She has the most beautiful family and is the bravest person I know, an absolute shining example of what love and determination can achieve. And no one has ever rocked the buzz cut with quite so much beauty and style! If you are not following her blog, you should be http://fromnewmomtoobb.blogspot.com/

 

Since then, my beloved father has been diagnosed with Bowel Cancer. Thankfully, he has already kicked the back of it with the usual charm and flair we have all come to expect from him and for many years I hope to continue saying that nothing is too much for this man to take on, even cancer.

 

Thankfully therefore we are walking for survivors – Kate, Kate’s mom in Canada who fought her own battle with Breast Cancer whilst endlessly supporting Kate from afar, my papa, my Uncle Brian who took on Bowel Cancer and won last year and the amazing Ross and Jemma Baggett who bravely showed cancer what their family was made of when Ross was diagnosed not long after Oscar was born.

 

We are all incredibly lucky and it can only be down to the support we have all given each other and the care they all received. I couldn’t be prouder to call these people my family. We want to raise money for the treatment and prevention of every type of cancer, in the hope that others will be as lucky as we have all been. We will walk with Izzy in our thoughts with the belief that the more we can do, the fewer families will have to endure the pain hers have.

If you are a UK taxpayer, please remember to tick the Gift Aid box when donating as this will increase your donation by at least 25% at no cost to you.

Many thanks for your support.

Together we will beat cancer.