20 years ago my mum passed away from Breast Cancer. That was 1996 : I was a young 16-year-old awaiting my GCSE results, my sister Sarah was about get her A-Levels results and was preparing to head off to university. Friends was still a new TV show, with season 2 only just being broadcast in the UK. (What's the Story) Morning Glory was the album everyone listened to and the Spice Girls were yet to be unleashed on the world! Princess Diana was still alive, and Tony Blair was yet to become Prime Minister.

For me, this all feels like a long time ago and it makes me realise just how long I have lived without my mum. Anyone who has lost a parent knows this is an incredibly tough thing to go through, but losing your mum or dad when you are so young and have not really found your own way in the world takes this to a whole new level. This is something no-one should have to go through, and ever since I started work I've regularly donated to cancer research as I never wanted another family to go through what we did.

Whilst I give regular donations, I've never done anything myself to try and raise a significant amount of money... until now. Having polished off a bottle of red wine one night last November and feeling a little emotional about the fact it will be 20 years since we lost mum, I decided to set myself a challenge - to run a marathon and raise £5,000 for Cancer Research. This is a lot of money to raise, so I really need your help to smash this and raise as much money as possible for what is an incredible charity.

So many people are impacted by cancer; the statistics are scary. It is estimated that at least 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lives. For women, it is estimated that at least 1 in 8 will get breast cancer, and whilst survival rates have increased significantly over the past 40 years (8 out of 10 people now survive), this still means we're losing too many mums, daughters, sisters, aunts and nans to this horrible disease. Fighting cancer is something we can all help with, so please sponsor me so we can stop this.

Without doubt I think completing a marathon will be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Over the past few years I’ve tried to do a little bit of running to get fit, and I actually found a nice short run of between 5-10km to be a good way to relax after a busy day. However 26.2 miles is a completely different ball game and quickly moves from being a way of relaxing to quite the opposite due to the amount of time it takes to train for such an event. But it is worthwhile, and I know every penny raised will be going to a great cause.

Thank you all for your help and support, it is much appreciated and will definitely help get me towards that finish line.

Rob