Claire's Walk 100 Miles Challenge Giving Page

Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. I’m going to walk 100 miles in October to help raise money for Cancer Research UK. Please show your support and help fund life-saving research by donating to my page. My brother Glen was diagnosed with Embryonal sarcoma of the liver in September 2021, a very rare and aggressive cancer which has not been seen in this country in over 15 years. This cancer is predominantly found in young children so it is even more rare to be found in an adult. Glen began to get pains in his abdomen in May 2021, after a couple of trips to the doctors and being told to take paracetamol, he was sent for a scan. This is where a large tumour was found in his liver. Over the coming weeks the tumour grew rapidly and Glen became very unwell, he was admitted to hospital at the start of July 2021. Doctors were unable to biopsy the tumour that was growing inside him due to its huge size and the large risk of this increasing the chance of it spreading. So at this point we did not know if this tumour was cancerous or not. His only chance of survival was major surgery to remove the tumour and part of his liver. The local hospital that Glen was in were unable to perform this type of surgery due to its complexity, so Glen was transferred to The Addensbrook Hospital in Cambridge. On the 23rd August 2021 Glen underwent life saving surgery and had 2/3 of his liver removed along with the tumour which weighed over 7kg! He spent 2 nights in intensive care and another 2 weeks in hospital recovering. Glen was supported by his wife Charlotte who at the time was heavily pregnant with their first child, before his surgery we did not know if he would survive to meet his baby. We found out that his tumour was embryonol sarcoma a few weeks after his surgery, this new devastated Glen and the family. But he was a fighter and vowed to fight this. The next steps for Glen was to undergo 9 months of extremely intense chemotherapy which was planned to start in October 2021. Before this was due to start Charlotte gave birth to their beautiful daughter Aurora Hope, on the 30th September 2021. The timing of her birth gave Glen some precious weeks before the chemo started with his new daughter. The 9 months of chemo was very tough on Glen and the whole family. He spent days in hospital whilst having the chemo and experienced numerous side effects including severe sickness. In May 2022 Glen completed his final round of Chemo. He was feeling positive about the future and looking forward to spending some quality time with his family. He began taking daily chemo tablets in June 2022, which he tolerated very well, these tablets were set to continue until Christmas. Things were looking good for Glen and he started to make plans to return to work later in the year. Things did not stay this way for long! After a routine scan, we were given the devastating news that’s his cancer had returned and had spread! August 8th 2022 was the day Glen was told there was no treatment, no surgery to help him and he had 8 weeks to live. It was not 8 weeks, Glen passed away at home on 28th August 2022 with Charlotte, Mum, Dad and myself by his side . Watching this was the most hardest things I have ever had to do, 32 is no age to die. He leaves behind an 11 month old baby girl, devoted, loving wife and a Mum and Dad that should never have to go through losing a child. So please help me by sponsoring me to walk 100 miles during October, a cure for this terrible disease must be found !