1 in 2 people get cancer.

That is a fact sadly most people know too well, that reality came home with our dad.

Let me introduce Mark Bentham, another individual story in the battle against cancer.

A fresh food chef by trade who travelled the world with his passion for flavour & love of cooking. He sought out new dishes with adventures in Canada, north & south America, trips around Australia & India. Cooking on yacht’s across the Mediterranean to camp fires in the British rain. After years of exploration he came up with his own mantra.

“There are two things that are certain in life, 1. One day we will all die. 2.You have to eat!”

To our dad Mark, food was everything. More than a passion, he loved cooking for all. Sitting down to talk & laugh at any makeshift camp table or solid oak masterpiece. Wherever he was in the world. Eating with Mark was like dinning at fancy a hotel every night.

Therefore, his form of cancer was one of the cruellest. An aggressive throat cancer that quickly spread to his stomach, stopping his ability to eat. Marks passion had been taken from him, he quickly lost energy & his body started to waste away. But hardest was that one of his favourite passions in life was taken from him & the other like a black cloud seemed to be haunting getting closer.

Nothing could stop his aggressive cancer growing & it spread. The final hope rested on surgery. With the plan to remove a large percentage of his stomach. A decision Mark battled with as this would affect his love of eating, for any life he had left. But facing his own fears a sacrifice he would make to be there for his loved ones. Unfortunately, cancer had other ideas & as much as the surgeons tried it was to large & aggressive to remove.

Now declared terminal we entered his darkest & hardest times. As all hope faded & reality struck home, the reality of what was come kept looming.

That’s when Macmillan Cancer & East Cheshire hospice stepped in. Not only taking care of all of Marks needs but wrapping around the family like a security blanket, supporting with both the physical needs, but more importantly the mental battles for all touched by Cancer, not only during but long after into the future. A parent losing a child, a husband or wife their partner or in our case our dad.

Sadly, this story is not only one from our family but across a lifetime shared by almost all.

That’s why we are making a stand against cancer, to support both of these amazing charity’s by setting a challenge Mark would approve of. To canoe from Glasson dock. The place where Mark learnt to sail & his thirst for adventure as a boy, through the cannel network. Over the Pennines & out the other side of the Humber mouth into Hull. Where some of the best fish & chips come from, or so we were always informed by dad. The real challenge though is to raise money for these two amazing and irreplaceable charities. Raising both awareness & money any contribution, support or a share is appreciated in our joint battle against Cancer.

Oh, did we mention we are complete novices and never been in a canoe before this challenge?

Our route - the aim is less than 9 days!

The coast-to-coast journey begins at Glasson Dock, near Lancaster, where our late father Mark 

learned to sail as a boy and developed his sense of adventure.

From there they will paddle towards the outskirts of Liverpool before taking in Manchester, 

Huddersfield, Wakefield and finally out into the Humber.

Are you looking to sponsor us from a company? Drop us a message about our corporate packages.

Previous page was on Virgin money however due to virgin money closing down we have to have 2 separate pages.