On May 28th I will be running the Edinburgh half marathon in support of my sister, to raise awareness of melanoma and to raise money for Cancer Research UK. 

In October 2022 my 21 year old sister, Sophie, was concerned by a darkened mole on her thigh. Sophie decided to get it checked and subsequently removed. After a month of waiting for results, Sophie was diagnosed with stage 1c melanoma skin cancer. The doctors explained that Sophie would need to have a biopsy and a series of surgeries to check her lymph nodes to check if the cancer had spread further.

After several tests and operations we awaited Sophie's results over Christmas. The day of Sophie's 21st birthday in the new year, Sophie received a call from the doctors telling her to come in to see them the following day. Sophie was told that her cancer had spread to stage 3a and from this point they didn't know where it could go or whether it had spread elsewhere. Time was of the essence and the doctors desperately needed to do a series of full body scans to check that it had not spread to her organs. If it had this would be stage 4 cancer which would have been a different story.

After several weeks of what felt like the longest period, Sophie finally found out that she was thankfully cancer free and that the lymph node had been removed in time, she was given the all clear. If it wasn't for Sophie recognising the changes to her skin and acting quickly the outcome could have been very different.

We are still processing what happened. The whole experience has obviously changed my outlook. We are all told of the dangers of being in the sun but it seems that it isn't until you actually see the real impacts that you become truly aware of how dangerous it can be.

Sophie's story was the motivation behind this half marathon (see our ‘Team’ JustGiving page connected). Sophie suggested that she wanted to do something to raise awareness of skin cancer, the importance of checking and protecting your skin. This is alongside raising funds for the essential research that cancer research takes on and I, want to support my sister, in what was one of the most challenging periods of her life and raise awareness to those who were as ignorant as I was.

The money that I raise through the event will help Cancer Research UK with their critical work in ways such as those detailed below: 

- £35 buys the nutrients that cells need to grow in the lab, allowing scientists to find out more about cancer than ever before. 

- £50 buys a microscope lens, meaning our scientists can focus on the small details that could help us beat cancer. 

- £200 buys DNA nucleotides. These chemical building blocks make up a strand of DNA. Scientists use them to make copies of important genes, giving us clues about how things go wrong in cancer. 

- £270 buys an Exome sequencing experiment to find out in-depth information about our DNA, so our scientists can find cancer-causing mutations.

I would be really grateful for your donation so thank you in advance for supporting me and the vital work of CRUK