In the past year, tragically we lost two of our treasured team members at The Lanesborough to gastric related cancer. Fernando Olivera who worked for half of his life at the hotel, over 25 years of service in our Concierge team and Johnny Ionescu who worked as our Night Chef in our kitchens.

The funds raised, from The Big Step Challenge will go towards the funding of a second new mobile diagnostic unit, to aid early detection of oesophageal cancer in the primary care setting and funding of a new detection test called the Cytosponge.

8000 people die from oesophageal cancer every year in the UK. It is the seventh biggest cancer killer with an appalling prognosis of only 15% surviving for 5 years, mainly due to late diagnosis. The most common symptom is persistent heartburn.

Diagnosis is currently only possible via endoscopy, an invasive procedure which is difficult to perform in a COVID-19 safe manner. This means that the current pandemic has resulted in a backlog of patients which has further compounded concerns surrounding late diagnosis.

This charity, is also particularly personal to me (Jo Stevenson Timini) as I lost my husband Dean, the love of my life, to Oesophagus cancer in October last year in the middle of the pandemic. He was diagnosed in December 2019 and gone 10 months later. No symptoms other than a bit of weight loss and heart burn. He was only 49 years old.

Thank you for supporting our team, your donations how big or small all make a massive impact to a small charity that are doing amazing work to support this stealth killer.