It was a great shock to be told at the back end of last summer that my good friend Fi Lacey, at the age of just 36, had been diagnosed with Cancer. To make matters even worse, this meant that Fi and Jon had to sadly say goodbye to their unborn child just weeks later as a result of the aggressive treatment Fi needed to fight the Cancer.

Tragically, on March 5th 2013 Fi lost her short battle with cancer having only been diagnosed 6 months earlier. She leaves behind a loving husband Jon, and a huge amount of friends and family who miss her.

Fi was diagnosed with secondary cancer of the lungs having initially developed a troublesome cough. Unfortunately, the lung cancer was symptom of another cancer somewhere else in her body that had spread to the lungs. This is known as CUP, or Cancer of Unknown Primary. It is more common than you would think.

Fi bravely undertook chemotherapy to fight the cancer and remained positive despite the gloomy prognosis. Sadly, she lost her battle and was taken suddenly and tragically early. She will be missed terribly.

There is a huge resolve amongst Fi's loved ones and friends to help others affected by CUP. To that end over 30 of us are cycling from London to Paris in the Arch to Arc challenge in early July 2013 in order to raise money and awareness to fight this killer disease. We had hoped to complete this event and share a glass of champagne on the Champs Elysee with Fi at the end. Sadly we won't get that chance but we can still do the event, raise the money, toast her memory and promise to never forget her.

What's CUP?

CUP has been a neglected cancer, despite killing as many people as Breast Cancer in any given year. So with Cancer Research UK, we have set up Friends of Fi to raise money which will fund research into the best treatments for Fi's type of cancer. We need your support to help raise awareness of this awful disease, giving its sufferers a much needed voice & greater chance for survival.

The Event

 

The goal is to get 31 of us to Paris from London by running and cycling.

I will be cycling the whole 300 or so miles, but this is the vanilla option. There are some loonies who will be running the 80 miles to Dover over 2 days and then joining the rest of us on the ride. Another group will cycle 54 miles and then run a marathon to Dover to meet up with us, all in one day.

Those of you who know me will know that this is the hardest physical task I have ever undertaken and understand that cycling 300 miles in three days is not something I have taken lightly (lightly obviously being the operative word). I have been in training for this since the start of January and am actually starting to believe that I may be physically capable of completing the ride!

I'd actually bet that most of you think I won't do it. However, Fi's cause and this group are great motivators, so as is befitting, I am taking it very seriously and have already lost 1.5 stone of weight.

So please back me, and my co-"athletes" (including both my brothers) and help raise money to help beat this dreadful, under-publicised disease. Any amount is welcome.

Thanks for reading.

Alex