Running for Life Across the West Midlands

My Story

Running Between Race for Life Events – For Those Who Can’t Over one weekend, Danny Doyle, Paul Ward, Robert Rumney and Scott Martin will run more than 60 miles across the West Midlands, linking multiple Race for Life events on foot. We will start at the Cancer Research UK Birmingham Centre at the University of Birmingham, run to Sandwell, continue on to Wolverhampton and finish in Solihull — taking part in each Race for Life along the way. This means back-to-back ultra marathons across two days. It will be demanding. It will hurt. It will require us to keep moving when everything tells us to stop. But it is nothing compared to cancer. We are doing this because cancer, and the impact of cancer, is not distant for us. It is part of our past and part of our present. For one of us, this begins with a sister — diagnosed with a brain tumour at just twelve years old. A child who faced something no child should ever face, yet did so with courage, humour and a strength that left a lasting mark on everyone around her. She died at fourteen. That loss does not fade. It shapes everything that follows. This run is carried in her memory. For another, cancer is not theoretical. Within their organisation, among the people they work alongside every day, are those bravely fighting serious diagnoses including advanced stages of cancer, those living with the reality of terminal illness and families supporting loved ones through the most difficult of journeys. They also stand alongside those who have come through it, whose resilience continues to inspire. We will not name them. That is not ours to do. But their example is profound. And it is impossible to ignore. Others among us carry the weight of loss — family members taken by cancer — and now stand alongside loved ones currently undergoing treatment. This is not something observed from a distance. It is lived daily. It is hospital visits, difficult conversations, waiting for results and the quiet, constant impact that reaches far beyond the individual — into families, into homes and into every part of life. So this is not just a challenge. It is a response. We will run from a place where research is saving lives, through communities where cancer is being fought every day and we will finish surrounded by people who understand exactly why this matters. We run because we can. We run because others are facing battles far harder than anything we will experience over these miles. We run to raise awareness and to raise funds for Cancer Research UK — supporting the work that gives people more time, more hope and more chance. We are aiming to raise £10,000 — a figure we hope will make a meaningful contribution to the work that changes lives every day. If you are able to support us, thank you. It truly matters. Because this is bigger than a run. It always was.