It’s Christmas…so why the heck am I doing this??...

OK, so I’ll tell you why…

Let me take you back to Christmas 1994. I’m 17, and it’s the toughest Christmas I’ve had. There’s an empty space at the table where Mum should be. Just a few months earlier, the cancer had returned, suddenly and brutally, and taken her away. Ten years earlier, when she was 40, she had fought and “beaten” breast cancer…only for it to return, savagely, a decade later.

Looking back, I’m so grateful that research developed the drugs that allowed me to get to know my mother. The difference between losing a parent aged 7 and 17 is immense. More recently, I have another significant reason to be grateful to Cancer Research UK, as they generously fund life saving research in my lab, as we look to develop medicines of the future and stop more families losing loved ones before their time.

This year, many more people will have spaces at the table, where a loved one should be. Many of these spaces are directly due to cancer, many directly due to COVID-19, many cancer deaths may be indirectly related to the pandemic, as patients needed to stop treatment prematurely. Whichever way you look at it, directly or indirectly, the coronavirus pandemic has cost a huge number lives. Looking forwards, the huge hit that charities have taken to their income resulting from the pandemic has meant that world class, life saving science has gone unfunded, or with reduced budgets*, meaning more lives may be lost moving forwards as an indirect result of the pandemic. At Christmas time, let’s try and remember those charities that have been hugely impacted, if you possibly can.

So, that’s why this Christmas Eve, I shall be teaming up with old pal and Media Volunteer Liaison Manager at Cancer Research UK, Tom Bourton, to each run a half marathon to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. “Why a half marathon each?” I hear you cry. Truth be told, I’m certain my knackered hip and bad back won’t manage a full 26.2 miles. Tom is younger and fitter that me and does marathons in his sleep but tells me something about a bad knee - but I’m not sure I believe him! Perhaps between us we make a fully functioning human! Mainly though, it’s symbolic. By running a half marathon each, representing the researcher and the fundraiser, it feels as though we are demonstrating how we are working side-by-side (metaphorically, of course, in an age of social distancing) to reach a common goal. On Christmas Eve, that common goal will running 26.2 miles, raising as much money as possible along the way. By doing so we might just help inch our way towards the real goal…to beat cancer sooner.

So, if you might have sent me a card, or bought me a pint over Christmas, please don’t – but if you can spare that quid or two towards this challenge, I’d be hugely grateful!

*In May 2020, we set up the #Baton4Cancer initiative so that researchers across Wales could help raise much needed funds for the charities which generously fund our research. To read more about this initiative, please see https://www.walescancerresearchcentre.org/pass-the-baton-for-cancer/