February 6th 2023, life as we knew it changed for my wife and us as a family - appointments, scans, so much information with the underlining statement, 'I am sorry Mrs Armstrong, you have breast cancer'....

What followed was 20 weeks of chemo, hair loss, reconstruction surgery, lymph nodes clearance and she still has radiotherapy to tackle, and preventative treatments over the next few years.

We count ourselves fortunate at this point, because my wife's outlook is positive, (so many people don't get this chance) the known cancer is gone, and she is starting the second phase of her journey to prevent the cancer returning in the future.

Life still isn't normal for us, and we are still working through the mental challenge this poses to us, both individually and as a family. We have good days and we have bad days - but the good days are starting to take over week by week.

With 3 kids under 8, I decided to promise my kids that when mummy was through the worst of it, I would finally shave the beard I had been growing to say 'F**K you Cancer' (a statement my kids use far to often now :) ) take hair from one of us, we grow it another way - something silly but my way of showing it won't beat us as a family.

I was talking to some colleagues, and told them about the promise and how they might see me clean shaven for the first time in 36 years (there is a myth I was born with a beard but no photos can prove or disprove this), and they said forget shaving it, lets dye it PINK for breast cancer, lets use the biggest event in London for our Industry - ICE 2024, to drive awareness of the amazing charity work Future Dreams Breast Cancer Charity does. (Ruths chosen charity)

Day 1 ICE 2024 falls on 6th February 2024, exactly a year on, and within the 20th Birthday year of Neosurf (also PINK) the challenge is set. A pink beard for 20 days starting the 6th February. For anyone attending you won't miss me across the event.

(it is also my Daughter Roberta's 7th birthday on the 6th February, so she is loving the pink theme)

My family and I are forever grateful for the team at Neosurf for the support they continue to show us during this process, and so its perfect to align this charity challenge on the 20th Anniversary of the business.

So please can I ask for any donation, the work FUTURE DREAMS does is amazing, supporting women through this process, focusing on living with their diagnosis and supporting them every step of the way! The donations will help women like Ruth, and families like ours.

As a family we say two things

THANK YOU EVERYONE

and

F**K YOU CANCER

Future Dreams is raising funds to support women through their breast cancer journey.

FD works on a number of campaigns to create awareness and fund research projects,

with a main focus on secondary breast cancer.

Over 50,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the

UK every year, the equivalent of one person every 10 minutes

according to Breast Cancer Care. To date Future Dreams has

raised over £5m pledging funds towards the charities

three aims - support, awareness and research, focusing

on secondary breast cancer.