One More City is an annual cycling campaign during Breast Cancer awareness month (October) that moves from city to city, starting from where the previous year’s ride has finished. Last year we rode from Paris to Amsterdam. This year we are riding from Amsterdam to Strasbourg (720km over 4 days!).  Last year I raised over £3000 and I hoping to “top this up” and get another £2000 this year  

We all know someone who has been affected by breast cancer or secondary cancer. My inspiring fellow cyclist Christine has set up One More City and you can read her blog here https://ive-started-ill-finish.com   

Much of breast cancer awareness, campaigning and research are focused around prevention and detection in the case of primary cancer, when the disease is confined to the breast and lymph nodes. Early diagnosis provides the best chance for survival, as the disease is curable in most people at this stage.  However, an estimated 20-30% of primary cancers spread to other organs, which is termed ‘secondary cancer, and at this point, the cancer is no longer curable. Those diagnosed with secondary cancer will spend the rest of their foreshortened lives on some form of treatment. 

The ethos of One More City is that the journey is never over; we are always progressing towards the next city, there are always more kilometres to do, more climbs to conquer and more challenges to face. This is akin to the reality of anyone living with cancer, especially secondary cancer, for whom the challenge is never over; there are always more treatments to endure, more scans to face, more side effects to manage.

Our fundraising will enable Imperial College to recruit a Ph.D student, which costs £80,000 for 3 years. By placing an outstanding young scientist in the exceptional scientific environment at Imperial College London, we aim to foster training that develops their potential to take her/his place as a future scientific leader solving new clinical problems. 

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, so patients show differences in responses to chemotherapy and to hormone therapies. This student would join the breast cancer team in their efforts to identify the mechanisms underlying resistance to cancer drugs and for developing methods for classifying breast cancer patients on the basis of their gene expression profiles and response to therapies, towards defining the optimal treatment regimens for each breast cancer patient. It is through such studies that cancer therapies can be individualised, to ensure that patients receive only therapies most likely to benefit them and so are not subjected to unnecessary or ineffective treatments.

Funds raised by OMC will be held in a special fund by Imperial Health Charity until the £80,000 threshold is reached and a Ph.D student can be recruited.