Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Last October (2014) my Mum found out she had a malignant tumour in her oesophagus.  After various tests and procedures she was recommended for a new chemotherapy treatment which is currently under trial.   Three courses of the chemotherapy were prescribed which began just before Christmas 2014.  Mum was enormously brave throughout her treatment, even making the time to host her grandson's (my boy Ollie) first birthday in February, albeit from her bed.  

The course was completed in March and, though quite weakened by the chemo, she was recommended for surgery to remove the rest of the tumour.  After a short period of recovery where she was able to put some weight back on and take some mild exercise she went into surgery on Tuesday 21st April.  The doctors were very happy with her progress after the operation and said the chemo had removed the tumour altogether which is quite amazing!

So, why am I writing and asking for sponsorship?  Well, there's not much I have been able to do apart from support mum with visits and telephone calls and letting her grandson entertain her - which has been a great therapy for her and all who are near by!  What I can do to help, however, is to raise money for Cancer Research UK whose work developing these new and more effective drugs and treatments have not only helped my Mum but everyone who has had to face this too common battle.  

The plan I came up with was to run seven half marathons plus a rowing 'marathon' this year, finishing with Henley Half Marathon (our home town) in October.  I completed the first run, Croydon Half Marathon on 29th March before I spread the word just to test that I am still able to get round a course, and happily I finished with a fairly respectable time of 1.47:42 (there were hills involved!). So with this new surge of confidence I revealed the full list of the year's challenges, which were:

29 March Croydon Half Marathon - Completed 1:47:42

10 May     Leeds Half Marathon - Completed 1:47:25

14 June    St Albans Half Marathon - Completed 1:42:01

12 July      Wycombe Half Marathon - Completed 1:44:44 

6 Sept        Richmond Running Festival Half Marathon - Completed 1:40:59

12 Sept     The Great River Race - Completed 3:25:24

27 Sept     Folkestone Half Marathon - Completed 1:44:50

11 Oct       Henley Half Marathon - Completed 1:41:31                        

You may have noticed the fundraising target for this campaign.... This is simply to demonstrate the costs these treatments and trials for new and more effective cures can be.  With help from my Dad contacting the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading where Mum has her chemo and the Churchill Hospital in Oxford where she had the operation we have been told that the combined costs for her treatment up to that point had been c. £20,000 so I set this as the target. There were three months of chemo treatment following the operation plus post op drugs and consultations so the final total will certainly exceed this amount but we wont find this out what it is in total until early 2016.  

The plan is that through all these temporary exertions I/we can help offset the cost of all the incredible work everyone involved has put in to help Mum, and everyone else suffering from cancer, and make sure Cancer Research UK can carry on helping us all.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING CANCER RESEARCH UK 

Jon x

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