As most people who know me will be aware, in 2022 the life of my family was turned upside when my dad was diagnosed with bone cancer. Although he had been struggling with a few things physically for a number of weeks, the diagnosis came as a complete shock to us all. This was made even worse as 2 weeks after the diagnosis, he badly broke his leg and ended up spending most of October 2022 in hospital. It was identified that as a result of the cancer,  his bones had become so damaged that breakages were inevitable.

The support my dad has received during his treatment has been incredible and I am very pleased to say that following multiple rounds of chemo and a stem cell transplant, he is currently cancer free and his bones are healing and strengthening nicely. 

During his treatment, I was struck by how many of the things I took for granted, without which the outcome could have been very different, were funded by different cancer charities.

We do not know if/when the cancer will return, but without funding much of the essential support my dad and countless families going through hell right now, would not be possible.

I could have chosen a number of brilliant Cancer charities to raise money for, but I have chosen to run the Great North Run 2024, to raise money for The Bone Cancer Research Trust. The below says it all really, but in short, I am doing this for my dad.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to saving lives & improving outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer. Despite being small, they fund more research projects exploring primary bone cancer than any other organisation. Other large UK cancer research charities do not prioritise bone cancer patients, in 2019 just 0.028% of their research spend went to bone cancer – not even close to 1%!Last year alone, Bone Cancer Research Trust committed an incredible £807,824 to pioneering bone cancer research - to save lives!