Hi All,

I've chosen  to complete L’Etape du Tour (Tour de France Stage 9) this year and would like to donate sponsorship to MacMillan Cancer Support in memory of a friend called Jon Hare who tragically passed away last November due to the rarest form of cancer in the world – Pecoma. MacMillan Cancer Support provided a great deal of support to Jon, his girlfriend Alex and his family and I know he would want your donations to help make life easier for future cancer patients.

For those of you who don’t know Jon, he was an amazing and truly memorable character for all the right reasons – bursting with energy, enthusiasm, a belief he could achieve anything and a love for life that was unbelievably infectious. In 2007 he left the corporate world of BT to follow his dream and set up his own business ‘Green Van Hire’ and it was thriving. He was a born entrepreneur and would have definitely made his million one day.

Sadly he was diagnosed with cancer in July 2009 and 2 weeks later was paralysed during an operation to remove a tumour. I have no idea how he managed to cope with both cancer and being in a wheelchair for his remaining days. Jon’s courage, positivity, sense of humour and strong fighting spirit was there until the end -  a real inspiration.

 

He had the rarest form of cancer in the world and fondly renamed himself ‘The Rarest Hare’ – all his qualities together are what really made him rare – one in a million.

 

Tragically Jon isnt the only person I know who has lost their battle with cancer, only yesterday I attended the funeral of another great young man called Dave Bernau, who sadly passed away due to secondary liver cancer at the age of 32. This is also in memory of Dave - an absolute gentleman.

 

I know most of you reading this will have your own experience with cancer and wish you could do more to help those affected, so please donate what you can and thank you for taking the time to help.

 

Take care

Sara xxx