Like many people, I have lost both friends and family members to cancer.

The death of a close friend to pancreatic cancer at a relatively young age in particular showed me that cancer can hit anybody, anywhere at anytime. Like me, he was a parent to 2 young girls, and in many many ways, he was taken far too soon. Our close circle of friends miss him every day.

So, one week before the event, I have made the slightly mad decision to join members of the Athona team to walk a full marathon distance, without any training, with the aim of raising money for pancreatic cancer research.

In addition to a lot of luck, I will need all of the inspiration I can gather to make it to the end!

If you could spare a small amount of money to help me make a very small contribution to a much needed area of research, I, and many others, would be extremely grateful.

Thank you.