A team of 12 people from GCW will be cycling from the west coast to the east coast of England in two days at the end of July. The route is 140 miles from Whitehaven to Tynemouth and promises to be a stunning yet challenging journey across two of the country's main mountain ranges (The Lake District and The Pennines) passing woodland, pine forests, lakes, streams and moorland linking the Irish and North Seas in the process. 

Why?

We are raising money for Solving Kids' Cancer but more specifically for Jake Cohen’s Journey. Solving Kids' Cancer are a registered charity who support and assist children and families affected by neuroblastoma cancer. 

Jake is the son of GCW Lease Advisory Director Adam Cohen and was diagnosed with Stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma in July 2017 aged 3½

What is neuroblastoma?

• Aggressive paediatric cancer affecting around 100 children a year in the UK
• Over 90% of diagnoses occur in children under 5 years old
• Approximately 50% of children with high risk neuroblastoma will relapse
• If a child relapses, there is less than a 1 in 10 chance they will survive
• Current treatment program is the most intensive for any type of cancer
• Children that survive neuroblastoma face severe and lifelong health problems from toxic treatments

Jake is now 5 is being treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and has already had the following treatments;

• 8 rounds of initial chemotherapy
• 4 rounds of additional chemotherapy
• Mibg therapy - which is an advanced radiotherapy treatment which involved Jake living in a lead lined room for 3 weeks
• High Dose chemotherapy
• 5 cycles of immunotherapy

Over the summer, it is planned that Jake will have surgery to remove his original tumour and have radiotherapy on the original tumour site.

Jake's mum writes a blog which you can read here;(https://jaketubeyandthewiggles.wordpress.com) 

Or you can follow Jake's journey on Facebook @jaketubeyandthewiggles 

Or on Twitter @jaketubeywiggle

Fundraising 

At the time of writing (15 May 2019), the family have already raised £170,000 which is a phenomenal amount of money. However any further treatments are likely to cost more than this and the family continue to fundraise.

All money raised is held by Solving Kids' Cancer and is designated for Jake's use for medical treatment for the next 5 years (or longer if necessary).

If Jake does not use the funds for any reason, the money will going into Solving Kids' Cancer's main account to help other children / families affected by neuroblastoma and to fund research that is essential to push forward and improve outcomes for children.

Thanks for reading!