Sam is a 54-year-old married mum of two, who works for the NHS and has been treated for cancer three times, two different cancers, since 2013. At first surgically, then with chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and immunotherapy. The treatment has not come without a significant physical price for Sam, and the impacts have been too numerous to mention here. But none of this fundraising is for Sam, it’s to help other people who find themselves in a similar situation.

To say that Sam has had a tough time over the last 9 years is putting it mildly. Most of us can only imagine what it is like getting cancer once, let alone twice. Imagine what it would like to then be told you have an extremely rare form of cancer - an Eptihelioid Trophoblastic Tumour - in an extremely rare group of cancers - Gestational Trophoblastic Diseases. Pretty rubbish. Then imagine what it would be like to hear that the treatment that you need for your extremely rare cancer is not funded by the NHS because….well…. It’s just too rare a cancer, which means there aren’t enough people with this cancer to prove that the treatment works, so the treatment doesn’t get approved for funding by NICE. Seems a pretty rubbish trap to be caught in, i’m sure you’ll agree.

Sam was out of options until she came across a charity called H&T - they are literally a lifeline for people in this situation. They will fund treatment for cancer, when the NHS funding isn’t there. They do this to be able to generate data to support the treatments ultimately becoming approved and funded by NICE. If it becomes approved then people in Sam’s position won’t run out of NHS funded treatments. The funds we are raising will go to future cancer sufferers who have also run out of options. What H&T ask of their beneficiaries (and their friends and families) is that they raise funds to help fellow travellers on this dark and lonely path. So that’s what we’re doing.

We will all be taking on personal physical challenges based around the number 68. “Why 68” we hear your cry? Because that number keeps cropping up in Sam’s cancer journey - it is 68 miles between Sam’s home and her current cancer centre in London, which she has to travel to every time she has treatment. She spent a total of 68 days in Oxford hospitals. Another 68 days in Hammersmith hospital. And 68 days in Charing Cross Hospital. So you can see why we are making it a 68 Pick N Mix!

We will be walking, running, cycling, skipping, swimming, squatting, sitting up, burpee’ing - whatever we can do as long as it is based around the number 68. Could be 68 days, could be 68 miles, could be 68 reps for 68 days - the options are endless. We will each create our own individual page and this team page is where the fundraising will all come together. If you have been inspired by Sam’s story and the work of the H&T Clients Charitable Trust, then why not join us! Set up your own page and link it to this team and you too can help to ensure that future cancer sufferers have the treatment they need available to them on the NHS.

If you’d like more information about the work of the H&T Charitable Trust, or about Gestational Trophoblastic Diseases, these links may help:

https://www.harrisandtrotter.co.uk/about/charitable-trust/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestational_trophoblastic_disease

THANK YOU for taking the time to read this, and for any support that you can give us, no matter how big or small.