Kate's London Marathon 2020

In April 2018, three days after cheering friends around the London Marathon course I was admitted to hospital, pretty suddenly, with dangerously high blood pressure. After a few weeks of various tests, scans and investigations it was discovered that I had a fairly large tumour on my left adrenal gland. I was told that these are "almost always benign" so, although I'd need surgery to remove it, once that had happened all would be well. As I wasn't really feeling ill at the time or suffering from any symptoms or side-effects, this was all a bit of a shock. Even more of a shock was to be told three weeks after the surgery and two days after my 31st birthday that the tumour wasn't benign but was instead Adrenocortical Carcinoma - an exceptionally rare and pretty aggressive type of cancer. Since July 2018 I've been thrown into a whole new world of oncology & endocrinology appointments, weekly blood tests, quarterly scans, two years of chemotherapy tablets (which I take every day, with every meal, and luckily shouldn’t cause hair-loss) to hopefully help stop any further spread, and seemingly endless hospital admissions to deal with the side-effects. As ACC is so rare, the treatment options are relatively limited - I'm currently taking a drug that is effectively an insecticide. Research into this and into all types of cancer treatment is SO important, hence why I've decided to do the London Marathon myself to raise money for Cancer Research. My oncologist was a little surprised when I asked if it'd be safe for me to run a marathon whilst taking chemo tablets but said that the team at Guy’s will support me entirely. I won't be fast but I am determined to finish it and hopefully to raise some money for a very good cause whilst doing so.