Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page

Mine is just one of the 'Team' Just Giving Pages under the Dursley Rugby Club's (DRFC) "Charity of the Year" umbrella, as there are a number of activities being organised throughout the 2023/24 season.

Here's just two of them:

* https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/simon-thomas-drfc-myelomauk

My wife Nadine was a coach for the DRFC Mini & Junior Section for 23 years and we still continue to try and get to as many of the senior 1st XV and ladies games as we can (and even made it to support the ladies at the Barcelona Tournament last year).

Until Nadine was diagnosed with Myeloma in early 2023 like most of the population we'd never heard of it. It makes up just 2% of all cancers and is, as yet, an incurable blood cancer that occurs in the bone marrow.

That said, due to the fantastic work of all the health and research professionals ably supported by Myeloma UK there have been fantastic strides made in the last 25 years. For example, most recently:

* 2018 Daratumumab (Darzalex also know as Dex) was the first immunotherapy drug approved for Myeloma thanks to the Patients & Doctors campaign supported by MyelomaUK

*2021 A huge victory for patient power the first maintenance treatment lenalidomide (Revlimid) was approved. This is the FIRST life-extending maintenance treatment for Myeloma

* Due to all these efforts we've seen great progress in recent years with average life expectancy quadrupling, with three out of ten patients living for ten years or more after diagnosis and some much longer still.

* Find out more about MyelomaUK's work over the past 25 years at myeloma.org.uk/25 years or view the impactful MyelomaUK Timeline here

They have been fantastic support for Nadine and I over the past several months and that's why I'd like to help support their vital work.

What's the challenge I've set myself?

We love the proclaimers "I'm Gonna be" or better known as "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more" and thought I could do something like that. But I've put a spin on it a bit. Yes, I'm going to cover 1,000 miles over the period 1st July to 30th Sept - so that's roughly 11 miles every day for 90 days (walking & cycling).

I'm tracking progress using Samsung Health so there's no cheating and I'm regularly post updates so you can see if you kindly pledge any money to MyelomaUK you're getting your monies' worth!!

** 2 month update: I'm 2/3rds the way through the challenge and have just completed 707 miles!! I initially set my goal at £1,000 but everyone has been so generous for this fantastic cause that having achieved 200% of that initial goal, I've reset my goal to £3,000 by 30th Sept!! 🤪

Thanks again for taking the time to read this and anything you can give to help MyelomaUK fund research and help develop better, kinder treatments and supporting multiple clinical trials will be VERY much appreciated.

All the best

Rob Thomas

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