Triathlon has been a big part of my life for over 12 years. Inspired by the 2008 Olympics, I joined the Manchester Triathlon Club, opening up a whole new world of adventures, friends and challenges. I’ve raced all over the world – Las Vegas, Wanaka, Lanzarote, and many more places closer to home. I’ve competed in big and small events, over short and long courses. But it’s the big ones that keep me coming back for more – full distance, Ironman! A 3.8 km swim followed by a 180 km bike, topped off with a marathon.

[Check below for regular updates and Strava links to see how my training is going]

[September update - I did it! On Sunday I completed Challenge Almere in 11 hrs 28 mins - see below]

[June 17th update - Outlaw Half this Sunday - see below]

[April 26th update - Oulton Park Duathlon - see below]

[April 11th update - where does the money go? - see below]

Cancer Research UK has also been a big part of my life, but for even longer, for over 20 years. After my PhD studies in Oxford and post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, I returned to Manchester in 1998 to set up my own independent research team at the University. I was full of ideas about how our research could help understand cancer evolution and even lead to new therapies. But I needed research funds to explore these ideas and in 1999 I received my first grant from Cancer Research UK, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship – we have benefitted from continuous and generous funding ever since.

Over the years, I have of course helped with fundraising efforts, for example hosting lab tours and giving public lectures. But I have never used my triathlon events for fundraising. I have tried to keep these two parts of my life quite separate - Cancer Research UK is part of my professional life, while triathlon is very much a focus of my private and social life. So why the change? Why am I now connecting the two?

The answer is the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted all of us in ways we could never have imagined. The charitable sector has been incredibly hard hit and in December Cancer Research UK announced a £45 million cut on top of the £44 million cut made at the start of the pandemic. As the world's largest independent cancer research charity, these cuts have massive implications for cancer research in the UK and the dedicated scientific community that drives that research. Simply put, translating today’s ground-breaking research into tomorrow’s cancer cures will be severely stunted. In addition, we risk losing a generation of talented young researchers who will have to seek employment in other sectors.

But despite these financial challenges, Cancer Research UK has continued to support our research! In 2020, my funding was up for renewal and during lockdown #1 the entire team was WFH helping prepare an exciting new proposal to cover the next five years. Following a virtual interview in September, we learnt on November 18^th that our bid was successful! An almighty relief – I have an amazing team with five research staff funded by our core Cancer Research UK grant; to lose them and their expertise would have been heart breaking.

And so the show goes on! If you want to learn about our research, check out the lab website (www.bub1.com) or for a behind-the-scenes insight see this wonderful feature by Phil Prime (https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/research-features/2021-03-26-the-journey-to-patient-avatars-building-a-living-biobank-for-ovarian-cancer)

To retain our funding during these challenging times is an enormous privilege and I feel very lucky to have Cancer Research UK’s continued support. Reflecting on this at the end of 2020, I decided that in return I now need to raise my game and do more to help Cancer Research UK with their awareness campaigns and fundraising efforts. The first step is this Just Giving page, making the connection between these two important parts of my life. Just putting this ‘out there’ is already pushing me out of my comfort zone – as mentioned above, I haven’t previously associated my triathlon adventures with charity fundraising. But we live in interesting times …

Taylor's Triple Triathlon challenge will involve competing in three 2021 races; the Volcano Triathlon, a standard distance race in Lanzarote; the Outlaw Half, a middle-distance race in Nottingham; and finally the big one, Challenge Almere in Holland, an ironman-distance race. I have completed events like these in the past but plenty of challenges lie ahead. I am now the other side of 50 and training isn’t as easy as it was even just a few years ago. I didn’t race at all in 2020, so I am also having to rebuild fitness from a low base. As well as running my own research team, I am now also Head of Division for Cancer Sciences (@UoM_DCS); it is of course a great honour to serve this university department, but it does mean I’m not always as ‘fresh’ for training as I’d like to be. Plus the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make life difficult for all of us in various ways.

There are many additional pieces to this puzzle and over the coming weeks I’ll try to provide more insights and training updates. But for now, if you can contribute a donation, however big or small, that would be wonderful. Raising a ‘stash of cash’ will of course be fantastic but the main purpose of my challenge is to raise awareness – as the major funder of cancer research in the UK, we need Cancer Research UK to be well funded to ensure that today’s discoveries are converted into the next generation of cancer cures, and to ensure that we 'train-and-retain' the very best researchers in this sector.

Meanwhile, stay safe, stay healthy and stay happy!

• Updates:
• September - I did it! Challenge Almere in the bag.
• 1st April - first open water swim and revised race schedule
• 11th April - where does the money go?