On 5 May 2013 Fiona, Tom and Camilla will be running the Geneva Half Marathon.

To many of you this will come as a huge surprise so to help alleviate the shock this is why we are doing it:

 

Wilber Squires (youngest son of Fiona and Tom and godson of Camilla) is 2 ½ years old. In January of this year he was diagnosed with renal cancer.  He is affected by a condition called Wilms’ tumours.  In lay terms Wilms’ are tumours on the kidneys that affect children up to the age of 5.  He is being treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the team who are looking after him are hopeful, despite the added complication of Wilber having tumours on both kidneys, that through the combination of intense chemotherapy and surgery, he will make a full recovery.  Wilber is in the best possible hands at Great Ormond Street.  Every person Wilber, Spiderman (Wilber’s alter ego) and his family have encountered there has taken that extra step to make a very difficult time just that bit more endurable.

 

When someone you love, especially someone as young as Wilber, is ill you want to help in any way you can and this is why we are running the half marathon. Every penny we raise will be donated to a Great Ormond Street/UCL Institute of Child Health research programme for infantile kidney cancer.

In briefest terms the research is looking for the best opportunities to identify the disease at an earlier stage making treatment shorter, more effective and less toxic.  Currently the way in which patient risk is determined was first used in Europe in 1994 and adopted in the UK in 2001. The current best treatments are based on the use of three different drugs, either individually or in combination, dependent on the measure of risk and stage at diagnosis. The drugs used were first approved for use in 1963, 1964 and 1984 respectively and are little changed since that time.  The overall chances that a patient suffers a recurrence or does not respond well to the current treatments have not changed. Through this research, they hope to be able to offer personalised medication, which can be adapted during treatment according to the way each patient responds, to ensure the level of treatment offered is appropriate and does not expose the child to stronger treatments than are necessary to achieve a successful outcome. This research is currently underfunded and they need more money to continue this crucial work.

We don’t promise to break any records but we do promise to complete it. 13 miles (almost 22 kilometres!) of running is difficult, particularly when you are not at your peak of fitness, but we are doing it for Wilber and for a great cause, so please dig deep and help us make a difference.

 

Do come back to this page to see how we are getting on. We will endeavour to update you with our progress.

 

With love, Fiona, Tom and Camilla