Ever since we were young children cancer has had a huge impact on our lives, affecting and in some cases taking away our family and friends. At the age of 59 our grandfather on our mother’s side of the family was diagnosed with cancer of the colon and sadly lost the fight aged 64. Our grandfather on our father’s side of the family was diagnosed with cancer of the bile duct in February at the age of 82 and in June of the same year lost the battle and sadly passed away. Our great grandfather died of pancreatic cancer. In more recent years cancer has struck again in our family, this time affecting our uncle. In October 2012 he had a suspicious lump removed off his foot to be tested, the diagnosis came back in December of the same year and was found to be malignant.The doctors operated to remove the sarcoma, a very rare type of that particular cancer. In the following January a successful operation has kept him clear of the disease to date.

The most recent case of cancer in our family is our Dad aged 53 who has been diagnosed with advanced melanoma (skin cancer). Advanced melanoma one of the most dangerous types of cancer and can be very aggressive starting off on your skin and spreading to other organs in your body, Dad has had skin cancer before and managed to fight it off,and as a result has been cancer free for eight years. In April 2014 Dad found a suspicious lump in his neck and had samples of it sent away for testing, we all had our fingers and toes crossed waiting for the results.On May 6th Dad visited Lancaster hospital to get the results which showed the lump was advanced melanoma, he went for more tests at Preston to find whether the cancer had spread and as a result we found it had spread to the lymph nodes under his armpit and spread under his rib cage. He underwent a long 10 hour advanced operation to try to remove all the cancer, led by surgeon Mr Srinivasan.The operation was successful and we all hoped it had removed all cancer cells. Dad recovered well but In October 2014 he felt some chest pain so he went to get it checked out straight away, results coming back in early November. At the Rosemere Centre in Preston a further advanced scan revealed all - the cancer had returned with a vengeance, in his chest bones, in both kidneys, liver and adrenal gland. The oncologist and team at Rosemere have looked after Dad and he is now on a relatively new drug to try and hold back the disease.

We swam 2 miles in the Great North Swim last year and with the huge amount of support we managed to raise a total of £3447.65 for Cancer Research UK, New drugs are being developed with this research for the disease all the time and we all hope Dad will keep ''ahead of the game''. This year we are swimming again with our friends Mike Durkin and his daughter Hannah. We are all determined and want to exceed the total we raised last year, the money we raise is going to the Rosemere Cancer Foundation. It is our way of saying thank you to them as they are responsible for treating and looking after our Dad.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story!

Alex & Oliver Benjamin