You've probably already guessed from the title of this page that this year I'm going to be running the Great North Run for Cancer Research UK.

Having never participated in any runs of this size before It's certainly going to be a challenge and13.1miles seems very far to me right now! For a few years I've been telling myself that I was going to do this but I've never had the motivation

Back in September, on the day of the Great North Run 2013, I travelled down to Newcastle to visit my Gran, who was staying in the Northumbria Palliative Care Unit at Rake Lane Hospital at the time. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer the year before and had recently had a mastectomy operation, however a couple of weeks after my visit she sadly passed away. I made a promise to myself that this year I would run for her.

More than 1 in 3 people in the UK will develop some form of cancer at some stage in there life and since the mid-1970s cancer incidence has risen by 23% in males and 43% in females. 

But it's not all bad news. Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. The research they do has saved millions of lives by discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and survival has doubled over the past 40 years. Every day in the UK there are more than 400 people diagnosed with cancer that will survive the disease for more than 10 years thanks to research.

From the very high rates of incidence it is almost fact that cancer will affect all of our lives at some point - whether it be a family member, friend, collegue or even yourself - and that's why this research is so important. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this far,

Jess

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