Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I am raising money for the Royal Marsden for all of their help and amazing work with my brother. As many of you knew he fought like a hero and beat advanced bowel cancer. Those were awful days and we are all so grateful to the Royal Marsden for how they tended to, cared for and helped to heal my brother. Their work meant he came home one day and gave us the some of the best news we ever will hear. The Royal Marsden needs all the help they can get to be able to finance their fantastic work and any donation you can assist with will go directly to their sterling work! 

Matti will of course never boast of his own inspiring resilience, but it defies words. The following is in Matti's own words:

It was an absolute shock to my friends, family and I when, in April 2012, I was diagnosed with advanced Bowel Cancer.  In the preceeding months I had noticed I was losing weight and some pain in my abdomen but I never thought, at just 30, it could have been Cancer.

Following some surgery (illieostomy - not fun!) and consultations at a local hospital I was referred to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London.  This decision would, in my opinion, have a fairly major impact in saving my life.

Over a period of 18 months I would undergo 6 surgical operations, 6 months of intravaneous chemotherapy and an intensive 6 week course of chemo-radiation (chemo combined with radiation).  During this period I also set about living as healthy and nutritious a life as I could with loads of advice from family, friends and friends of friends. On the 14th of February of 2013 I was informed that following a fairly major operation that I was free of any cancer and now in remission.

Unfortunately, my journey wasn't quite at an end as I would need to continue chemo treatment to ensure that all microscopic disease was killed off and was then diagnosed with a second Cancer in my Thyroid (neck).  Thankfully this form of cancer was quite treatable and, although being an annoyance, I was assured there should be no long term damage.

 It's been a gruelling time for myself and those around me.  It is my intention to live life to the full going forward and completing these challenges is a big part of that.  To date, the challenges I am organising are below (although I hope to add to this):.