My Story
Years ago I went to university to study Biochemistry with the aim of working in cancer research. Just because of what I'd read and seen in the media, I thought cancer a terribly unfair disease. I never dreamed of how well I'd come to know this most hated of companions. In June 2011 my mam was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer. Mam held on through chemo, and the most radical surgery I've ever heard of for 17 months, long enough to meet her first granddaughter. We held her hands and said goodbye just days before her 63rd birthday in November 2012. In August 2012, our family friend Myra came to my mam and asked for advice on how to tell her own daughters that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 Breast cancer. I say friend, buy Myra, Alan, and their girls Gemma and Vikkie are more like family. Myra held on for over 2 years, in August 2014 she met her second grandson, then at the end of October she stopped fighting. During 2015 Gemma and Vikkie also lost their grandma, and auntie Irene to cancer. In September 2015, our step-mam Trish was diagnosed with Small Cell Lung Cancer. Early stage, so we thought this time there was more hope. Trish responded very well to radiotherapy. In July 2016 she was given the all clear and we thought we'd got away with it this time. Then in October she began to feel unwell again, and scans showed that not only had the cancer returned, it had spread like wildfire. She left us at the end of November 2016. Just 3 days before losing his wife, our dad was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. He is still fighting, and doing well. We are racing in memory of those we've lost, but mostly with hope for my dad, and for those still fighting. With enough research other families don't need to watch their loved ones suffer the way that we have. Please give whatever you can to help. Thank you. PS - If you want a laugh, come watch a fat girl on crutches (me!) try to make it around Leazes park without collapsing on July 9th!
