70% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die before they can receive any treatment and over 50% die within 3 months of diagnosis - this has to change!

It is 16 months since my last fundraising challenge. Time has flown yet an awful a lot has happened. Somehow I’m still buggy running occasionally with the ever growing kids so I thought it was time for another 10km pushing what is now a combined weight of around 45kg!

My husband Sam’s battle with pancreatic cancer started in April 2022 when our son had just turned 2 and our daughter was 6 weeks old. He was 34 and a super fit runner, working extremely hard as a Vice Principal at one of the biggest and most successful schools in the country.

Given a 3-6 month prognosis and referred to a hospice, he has now outlived this by over 5 times and is still winning the fight to keep this deadly disease at bay, but there is no end in sight. It is such an incredibly hard fight but with so much to live for his determination to beat it is never waning. The last year has been a rollercoaster involving an aborted operation, complex broken bones leading to multiple other operations, countless other dangerous side effects and an awful lot of the magic concoction of toxic drugs that has kept him with us so far.

Throw into that a house move, a new job for me, our son starting school and a new nursery for our daughter, we have certainly kept ourselves busy. However, our new location is a lot flatter than before which makes for much more enjoyable buggy running!

I will be running the Christmas Chilly 10k at Castle Combe race circuit on Sunday 8th December. I would love to take the opportunity to continue to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer and particularly the fact that it is so tricky to diagnose with its vague symptoms which means so many people, like Sam, find out they have it at a very late stage.

If you feel able to donate any amount to Pancreatic Cancer UK it will be so appreciated in supporting the services they offer to patients; the critical scientific research they fund; and their campaigning for better care.

However, I know it is an expensive time of year. If you can share the message and encourage people around you to get any health concerns thoroughly checked out sooner rather than later, that would also be hugely valuable.

The symptoms of pancreatic cancer are:

Abdominal pain

Back pain

Jaundice

Unexplained weight loss

Indigestion

Changes to your poo

Thank you for reading.

Amanda x