Story
Here we go!!!! x
Yvonne Currie, Jacqueline Guest, Angela Lawson, Elaine Davies, Dawn Key, Marie Dunsmuir, Kirsty Moore, Lesley McIntosh, Fiona McGinness, Colette Dorman and Monica Cannon make up Team Gill. A few of Gillian Farrell’s friends and family who have decided, on the first anniversary of her death, to run the Great North Run in her memory. Gill was a very keen runner and we think this would be a fitting way to celebrate her life and raise funds for a very important charity. Although Gill never wanted to be a ‘poster girl’ for cancer (her life was so much more than this horrible disease.) we think she would want to raise awareness and help those who find themselves in the same situation as she did. She would also, we think, chuckle at the thought of us all getting our training gear on! (Some of us have more experience in this field than others...). We didn’t know much about Bowel Cancer before it touched our lives but it is actually the second biggest cancer killer in the UK. In addition it is not, as many people think, an old person’s disease. The number of younger people being diagnosed is increasing every year. It is also sometimes symptomless (as was the case with Gill) until it has reached an advanced stage. Gillian wasn’t old. She was fit and healthy. There is no genetic reason as to why she developed this cancer. Her oncologist simply described it as ‘bad luck’. That is not good enough. Hopefully more awareness and increased speed in diagnosis will help ensure fewer people suffer the same ‘bad luck’. Bowel cancer UK is the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity and we would like to help. We hope you do too. Thanks in advance xxx