People think that blood cancers are very rare but actually thousands of people get them, every year, at any age and often quite out of the blue.

Treatments for these conditions can be very unpleasant, frequently involving weeks to months in hospital.  More than half of adults diagnosed with acute leukaemia still die from it.

Improving treatments and the chance of surviving these illnesses requires intensive research.  In the last few years scientific breakthroughs lead to major improvements for some conditions but this needs to continue so that one day, we will be able to cure the majority of patients.

It is quite surprising to many people that not much medical research is funded by the government.  The majority of scientists studying blood cancers rely on funding from charities, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research being the biggest of these in the UK.  They fund over £8m of research every year, and all of this comes from public donations. That's why I am going to try and cycle over 400km from london to paris in June, and I hope you will consider sponsoring me!  Thank you!