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In September we will be cycling the entire length of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route running the entire breadth of Northern Spain.  This will be a difficult journey and a true pilgrimage for both of us. The route starts in St Jean de Luz on the Spanish French border and ends in Santiago de Compostella  in Western Galicia. A grand total of 873 km - all off-road - in 8 days! 

 In 2007 our fathers, David Durham (Dad) and Bill Bailey, walked part of the route, approximately half, from Pamplona to Leon. It was a tough walk but they met some great people and experienced many special moments (perhaps some spiritual) and it would be fair to say touched them both and left a great impression. They intended to complete the walk another year........

 

Unfortunately David was diagnosed with brain cancer in late 2009 and died in 2010. The type of cancer he had, glio blastoma multiforme (GBM), is a particularly aggressive kind with no cure and no effective treatment. It was a very difficult year for all of us. GBM is a cruel disease for which there is no cure and devastating for the patient, family and friends. The disease is painful and leads to loss of function and personality change. If that wasn’t bad enough the conventional treatment reduces mobility and can cause side effects as bad as the disease itself. Brain cancers ARE COMMON! Unfortunately there are many different types which leads to problems in gathering statistics and ultimately poor funding from central resources.

Our pilgrimage has two aims; firstly to complete the pilgrimage and remember David, secondly to raise money for an extremely worthy cause:

Brain Tumour Research was founded in 2008, launched specifically to raise substantial funds for brain tumour research. It’s mission;

·         To raise at least £7 million per annum

·         To accelerate progress significantly in brain tumour research in the UK in order to make a clinical difference

·         To improve the outcomes for brain tumour patients

Currently neuro-oncology research teams across the UK are reliant on brain tumour charity funding to support their work and are therefore only able to recruit PhD and MD students, many of who are part time, with little technical staff assistance. In order that UK neuro-oncology research can gain in strength and stature, we need to finance existing research centres properly so that they can establish laboratory-based brain tumour research centres which employ experienced and intellectually innovative staff to carry the discipline towards provision of a basis for better outcome in patients unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with any form of brain tumour, independent of age, location or type.

Here are some facts about brain cancer:

·         16,000 people each year in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour

·         Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of UK children

·         More people under 40 die of a brain tumour than from any other cancer

·         Only 12% of males diagnosed with a brain tumour and 15% of females survive beyond 5 years (compared with 50% for all cancers)

·         25% of all cancers spread to the brain

·         33% more children died from a brain tumour in 2007 than 2001

·         65% more women die from a brain tumour than from cervical cancer

·         Every year there is a 4% increase in incidence

 

Back to the journey…….

Our target is to raise £2740, one day of funding for one centre. But we don't wanna stop there; if we could raise two days funding......... All money raised will go direct to BTR and you can donate either via the Just Giving website or personally.  I have provided info and links at the bottom of the page if you would like to read further. We will be keeping a blog up to and during the ride and will document the whole ride. I hope you feel this cause is worthy and feel able to donate to it.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to contact us for more info.

Ed and Tim.