As many of our friends and family will know Prevent Breast Cancer is a charity that is very close to our hearts after our experiences over the past 2 years. On boxing day 2019 Rosh found a lump in her breast and we started a journey that would change our plans and lives for the foreseeable future. We count ourselves extremely lucky, Rosh received amazingly quick treatment and within a month of finding the lump she had been diagnosed and the lump removed, many women will not be as fortunate and that is why we are now so passionate about raising money and awareness for the work Prevent do.

We look back on the 6-month period of continuous hospital appointments, talking about operations, fertility treatment and then 3 weeks of radiotherapy in the middle of lockdown, as if they happened to someone else. Luckily, we can look back on all of this as a positive experience now that Rosh has made a full recovery, but we know that if she hadn’t found the lump so early and acted so quickly then things could have been very different.

Over the past two years we have raised over £10,000 for Prevent through various different events and Rosh has now become an ambassador for the charity, attending events and delivering talks about the importance of early detection. Through her work with Prevent we have been shocked by some of the statistics around breast cancer and the lack of facilities and funding charities like Prevent receive.

Prevent are a charity focused on early detection and prevention of breast cancer and given our experience this is something that is now very important to us. The demands on breast cancer services have doubled in the past 10 years which means there is a lack of facilities to cope with the demand for treatment and the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated this with 1.5 million fewer breast screening appointments taking place. The money we are looking to raise by running the London marathon 2022 will go towards raising the £3.2 million required to build a new National Breast Imaging Academy at Wythenshawe Hospital, this will help cope with the increased demand for screenings and allow more professionals to be trained to detect and treat breast cancer.

To raise the money, we will be doing one challenge next year and that will be running a marathon together, if we make it to the finish line on 2 October 2022 with our marriage still intact and having raised some more money, we’ll be very proud.

We appreciate friends and family have been extremely generous over the past 2 years with continued donations, but every pound does count, and we would be very thankful for any donations people are able to give. Please also keep a look out for an announcement about a charity ball we are hoping to host next year to raise even more money and awareness.

Love and thanks
Rosh and Chris xxx

1 in 9 women and 1 in 1000 men in the UK will develop the disease in their lifetime. That means that every year, in the UK, 55,000 individuals are diagnosed, 150 people a day. Prevent Breast Cancer is the only UK charity entirely dedicated to the prediction and prevention of breast cancer.