In February 2025, I will be turning 50.

To celebrate my half-century, I have big plans for 2025 and am pleased to share details of my 'Fundraising Festival of 50'.

After taking up running in my forties, much to my own surprise, it turns out that I wasn't content with my initial goal of completing a parkrun, a 10k race, half marathon, or even a marathon (or two) and that I wanted to push things further, and that's when the idea of my Fundraising Festival of 50 was born.

My fundraising festival, will be a series of marathons and endurance events which will push me to my limits, and beyond, with the aim of raising as much money as I can to support Heartburn Cancer UK.

In 2025, I am aiming to complete the following challenges:

9th March - The Grizzly https://www.axevalleyrunners.org.uk/Grizzly/

Check out this go pro video of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cE24z7cGn8

7th April - Brighton Marathon https://www.brightonmarathonweekend.co.uk/events/brighton-marathon/the-course

14th June - Man v Horse - yes, this really is a race between humans and horses https://www.green-events.co.uk/whole-earth-man-v-horse

5th-6th July - Spitfire Scramble https://www.spitfirescramble.co.uk/

26th October - Beachy Head Marathon https://beachyheadmarathon.eventrac.co.uk/e/beachy-head-marathon-weekend-12370

There will (hopefully) be another few races along the way!

Why am I doing this?

Aside from the obvious mid-life crisis (I'm too much of a wimp to get a tattoo and have never had any interest in cars), I am doing this for a very simple reason and that is to raise awareness of the symptoms of oesophageal cancer and to fundraise to support the early diagnosis through the simple cytosponge test.

Early diagnosis saves lives.

Unfortunately oesophageal cancer is one of the least survivable cancers. One reason for this statistic is that the symptoms are often ignored or misunderstood meaning that it is often diagnosed at a late stage.

Persistent heartburn or indigestion are common symptoms of oesophageal cancer and should never be ignored.

If you, or your loved ones, are suffering from persistent heartburn or indigestion, make sure you speak to your GP.

I will be undertaking the fundraising festival of 50 in memory of my stepdad Bill.

In January 2018, Bill began suffering from reflux and experiencing difficulty in swallowing food.

In March 2018 he was diagnosed with Oesophageal cancer.

Due to the location of the tumour, Bill did not experience symptoms until the cancer was at an advanced stage and in October 2018, Bill lost his short battle against the disease.

However, what neither Bill nor those of us around him realised, was that he had in fact been experiencing symptoms long before he eventually sought medical help in early 2018. Bill had experienced persistent indigestion for years and had self-medicated with over the counter medications, regularly taking rennies or tums to ease his symptoms.

I am running in memory of Bill and to save lives through early diagnosis.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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