Hello guys and gals,

On the 2nd August this year I'm going to be doing my first triathlon. Its 1.5km of splashing feebly in the docks, 40km of bum soreness on the bike, rounded off with 10km of sweaty stumbling with just my legs and a pair of skimpy shorts. Preparation has not been ideal. I have made it to open water swims down in Teignmouth, wearing a sleeveless female wetsuit older than I am. This was cold, exhausting and embarrassing. The little biking I've done has been on my Mum's mountain bike and for the running I just wrecked myself by crossing 520km of the mountains of Southern Poland in a week.

So basically I need your help. Without donations this exercise will be painful and pointless. With donations it will merely be painful. If you feel that its not sufficiently painful to warrant wallet delving then please see http://www.lifebymisadventure.com and add the pain you see there to the predicted pain for August 2nd. Hopefully this will be enough to get you to spare at least two quid.

This is for an excellent cause. Around 300,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK every year. Every two minutes someone is told they have the disease. And every year more than 150,000 people die from the disease. In 1999 one of these was my aunt, Charlotte. (We called her Dolly) and that is why I have been doing painful things for cancer charities ever since.

But the reason you need to donate is not just because of the scale of the problem but because progress is being made. There have been huge steps forward in improving survival and in preventing thousands of new cases of the disease, both in the UK and across the world. Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of this progress thanks to the sustained support and generosity of the UK public. The average ten-year survival rate for the disease has doubled over the past 30 years. Half the people diagnosed with cancer today will still be alive in five years’ time. And more than 40% will still be alive in ten years’ time. There are now more than two million people alive in the UK who are living with or have previously had cancer. The outlook for cancer has never been more promising. This optimism is fuelled by the ever-increasing knowledge and understanding of the disease that research provides and in which Cancer Research UK is leading, both in this country and internationally.

This doesn't mean you can ignore the problem, it means that your money will actually make a difference.

Thanks for reading and thank you for your support,

All the best,

Ed