Erin's Race for Life

Cancer is happening right now, which is why I'm taking part in a Race for Life Pretty Muddy to raise money and save lives. 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Me and my mum heard that figure whilst watching Stand Up to Cancer earlier this year. I turned to her and said ‘well, that means one of us will get cancer?’, mum commented she’d already went through a removal of pre-cancerous cells at my age, so surely that was our run of it. Unfortunately that was not to be the case. Just a few months later my mum has been diagnosed with Type 3, triple negative breast cancer. This is one of the rarer forms of breast cancer that doesn’t respond to hormone treatment. This means mum will go through 17 weeks of tough chemotherapy, surgery around December time, more chemotherapy and potentially radiotherapy. We know we have a long road ahead of us, but I am so proud already of how strong she has been. I’m running the Muddy 5k to raise money for much needed cancer research. It took just a month from my mum submitting an online form to the GP after finding a lump, to meeting with the oncologist discussing treatment plan. Of course the NHS is incredible and are due credit for this, but the knowledge gained from the work Cancer Research do also plays a huge factor in how quick the process was. One thing that stuck out to me when speaking to the oncologist was genetic testing. She mentioned they know a lot about 3 of the genes that can pass on cancer, but there’s another 5 they don’t know a lot about and therefore don’t understand it’s effects or risks. This is just one small thing that Cancer Research needs our support for. So please please donate anything you can - every penny really does count. Thank you so much.