For the past 2 years I have ran the Great North Run for teenage cancer trust and this year I will be running it again. But this year it is different. The cause is a little bit closer to our hearts.

At the start of 2022 I found a lump on the left side of my neck. Obviously Mam was telling me to get it checked out and obviously I was like I’m fine it’s nothing, but, since it didn’t disappear I went to the GP. I was referred under the 2 week wait to ‘exclude’ cancer and a few months, scans, blood tests and biopsies later they concluded it was a benign tumour so I had a surgery to remove it in October.

This was supposed to be the end of it all. I was supposed to continue with my normal life…

But after the surgery, I was told the lump they had removed looked concerning, and a couple of weeks later I was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma.

At the age of 21. A type of cancer that apparently most commonly affects overweight, white, males aged 80-84.
It was obviously a HUGE shock for us all.

I was forced to stop everything. One of the things I will never forget is having to say no to sign a contract for a uni house next year with my best friends because I didn’t know if I would even still be here. I had to put my degree on hold and suddenly go from being a medical student on placement to a cancer patient attending endless appointments, scans and tests, having to make massive decisions about fertility and 10 million other things I never dreamed I would have to worry about.

Teenage Cancer Trust fund units in hospitals around the country and I received my chemo and immunotherapy treatment in one of these. It made the hospital seem like a less scary and daunting place and made what I had to go through more bearable. I am so lucky that I had the support from my unbelievable Teenage Cancer Trust youth worker and nurses and the team at the hospital to answer all of my questions and give advice in these overwhelming times. They made me feel comfortable and kept me entertained during the long, horrible chemo days.

When we talk about cancer we think of chemotherapy, losing your hair, feeling sick and all the horrible side effects, which I did have going through chemotherapy, but it is so much more than that. The emotional toll that it takes on you and the people around you is often overlooked and it is what often lasts the longest.

I am so grateful for my amazing friends and family. I have had them all by my side every step of the way, through the hardest and darkest times and the ones yet to come and I couldn’t have done it without them. But some people are not that lucky. Some young people don’t have that support around them and would be facing cancer alone if it wasn’t for Teenage Cancer Trust.

I am extremely fortunate and endlessly grateful that I have now rang the bell and am in remission! With all this support I BEAT CANCER!

My mission now is to gain my strength back up, fully recover and run the Great North Run for Teenage Cancer Trust once again, this time as a cancer survivor and as Team Len.
I also want to remind everyone that cancer can happen to anyone, so please, please don’t ignore any signs.

My Mam, Romane, Yann, Katie, Adrienne, Jas, Anika, Jemima, Sally, Sam and I will all be running and are fundraising together as Team Len. We want to raise money to help other young people get through this too!

We are so grateful for any donations at all no matter how big or how small. Let’s make a difference together!

Thank you ❤️