Rachel Kitching

Beating breast cancer

Fundraising for Cancer Research UK
£5,365
raised of £3,000 target
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
Event: Leicester Marathon 2017, on 15 October 2017
Participants: Nathan Burrows, Gemma Turner & Caroline Stuart
Cancer Research UK

Verified by JustGiving

RCN 1089464, SC041666, 1103 & 247
We pioneer life-saving cancer research to help us beat cancer

Story

The short version of my story is that I am a recent breast cancer survivor who is looking to raise funds to help others to beat this horrible disease. If you'd like to know more about what happened to me, my full story is below...

2016 was a shocking year, and for us it was a mixed bag to say the least. After the joy of falling pregnant at the beginning of the year with our much longed-for baby, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in August.

At the time I was seven months pregnant, so the beginning of my treatment was delayed so that our baby could have the safest start in life. Our lovely boy Noah arrived safely after an induced labour in September, and I had breast surgery the following week.

Following my recovery we had a frightening time when Noah developed sepsis and was hospitalised for a fortnight. Thankfully he recovered fully and we were able to begin my treatment.

I've had four months of chemotherapy, which was tough going, and resulted in the loss of my hair. You can hear me talking about it on the Jeremy Vine show here, about an hour and ten minutes in: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ktsx6

I've now begun the monthly injections and daily tablets of hormone therapy which I'll have for the next ten years. Soon I'll start a month long course of radiotherapy.

I'm also about to begin training...

Before all this I really enjoyed running. I had to stop at 4 months pregnant as I was uncomfortable and already enormous, and since all this cancer nonsense I've unfortunately not been well enough to run. Now that chemotherapy is over, Noah and I have started to get out for daily walks, and depending on how I get on with radiotherapy I'm hoping to step it up soon to a gentle jog.

The end goal is the half marathon in October, with the Race for Life in July and the Leicester 10K in September as important milestones along the way. I'll be posting updates here and on my facebook page.

It's important to me to give something back to the incredible people working in medical science, whose work I have certainly benefited from. Cancer Research UK is a big charity, but an important one. The work they do is saving lives every day, including mine. And it's funded by people like you and me.

I'd be incredibly grateful if you could spare a few quid. Thank you.

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About the charity

Cancer Research UK

Verified by JustGiving

RCN 1089464, SC041666, 1103 & 247
We‘re the world‘s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving and improving lives through research. We fund research into the prevention, detection and treatment of more than 200 types of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Donation summary

Total raised
£5,365.00
+ £1,156.45 Gift Aid
Online donations
£5,335.00
Offline donations
£30.00

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