In February this year our world came crashing down around us when at just 36 and just 5 months after the birth of her first child my beautiful, clever and brave cousin Rachel was diagnosed with cancer. Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, or EHE is one of the worlds rarest cancers with maybe 5 patients a year in the UK. 

• Some patients can live with EHE for many years and they have regular scans to monitor it. 
• It is described as living with a ticking time bomb that may never go off.
• May turn aggressive at any time 
• There is no cure for aggressive EHE which is normally fatal;
• There is no systemic treatment for the disease, treatment is often by trail and error;
• Living with EHE causes enormous psychological stress;
• Over 80% of patient are women;
• There is a strong clinical signal in women that the onset of EHE is tied to puberty and pregnancy 💔 imagine finding this out this news at these important times of your life that should be so happy.

Those of you who know Rachel will not be surprised to hear that she’s being a total trooper and even managing to have the odd inappropriate, dark humoured laugh about it! Because it’s so rare there is no funding from government or the pharmaceutical industry for research into this cancer, and very little from larger cancer foundations and charities. So I’m running the London Landmarks half marathon to raise money for the EHE Rare Cancer Charity UK who have been a great support to Rachel and are doing an amazing job at raising money for research into this horrible disease. I owe it to my cousin and to her gorgeous baby boy to do all I can to raise money to hopefully find a cure