In September 2023, our friend's 2-year-old daughter, Mabel, went to the hospital with a seemingly innocent sore tummy. Little did they know, it was a 12cm diameter Malignant Rhabdoid Tumour in her pelvis. Since then, Mabel has been on a gruelling 3-month journey of intense chemotherapy every two weeks, leading up to a crucial surgery on January 3, 2024. The battle doesn't end there; come February she will start intense radiotherapy where she will need to be put to sleep daily for up to 6 weeks. She will continue with the rest of her treatment over the course of 2024 completing a minimum of 9 months.

The speed at which this nightmare unfolded is unimaginable. One moment, life was normal with Mabel and Teddy (4) doing all the things that those little nippers do, and the next moment, Rob, Lola (Mabel's parents) and Sue (Lola's mum) were facing a relentless three month rota of sitting by Mabel's bedside every single day. And that was just the beginning; more challenges lie ahead. In the midst of this chaos, Young Lives vs Cancer emerged as a beacon of support, providing a home in Bristol, assisting with fuel costs for the commute from Devon, showering Mabel with thoughtful gifts, and even funding weekends away to offer the family a much-needed respite.

Reflecting on a promise made after the Bath to Bristol Marathon in 2015, where I vowed never to run another, I find myself back in the running shoes. Having recently achieved a personal goal of sub 1:30 in a half marathon after a year of rigorous training, I wondered if I could push further—a sub 3-hour marathon. Why not attempt it in 2024 and elevate the cause by dedicating it to Mabel? She's enduring a 9-month medical marathon, and I'll spend the same duration training for mine. There are no similarities other than time but that's all I can give and I'd like to do something. Rob and Lola have chosen Young Lives vs Cancer as the charity to support, and thus, the Chester Marathon on October 6th beckons. I have nine months to endure the physical toll, dodge injuries, brave all weather conditions, and somehow avoid annoying my family (who've already threatened divorce for even contemplating another marathon).

I’ve set a big target. But I’ve a large network and through my friends, family and industry colleagues I’m pretty sure we can get there. My company, Hydrock, have promised to donate a four figure sum if I do!

I've never raised money like this before so please do share this story far and wide and let's do this together.

Update 31st January 2023

...........in Lola's words. Because I can't take the sting out of them

Dear old Mabel has seen better days 🤯🤯

She's got an infection due to the catheter she’s got in place (she only has this as she’s going to start radiotherapy next week and they don’t want her bladder working to hard or being irritated whilst it’s healing).

But actually today they are weighing up if they just get rid of the catheter completely to avoid more infections over the next 5 weeks…. So will be told soon what they have decided….

She had a temp of 40 whilst they tried to find the source of the infection and was pretty sick and awful bum which made her so sore and sad 🥴

Then her blood count dropped just to top it off….. she had another blood transfusion and started to perk up 🙌🏽 the antibiotics have worked wonders so she’s on the way up!

She’s super super skinny right now which is really sad to see, we were hoping she’d be a bit fitter/ more weight on going into radiotherapy but here we are…. So we just have to keep up the milk feeds through her NG tube in her nose to try and get those calories in as her appetite has pretty much gone even though she asks for everything to eat but just looks/ picks at it! Super frustrating 🤯🤯

She’s into her make up these days which is cute to see hehe! Always asking for her pretend lippy 🤣🤣