Amy, Kate and I are running the 2010 Adidas Women's 5K Challenge in Hyde Park London on Sunday 5 September, to raise money for the Debbie Phillips Cervical Cancer Research Fund. Debbie was married to Steve's cousin Mark and she lost her battle with cancer in February of this year at the age of 48.
Debbie was an amazing, intelligent, fun-loving and inspirational woman, both in the way she lived and especially during her four-year battle with cervical cancer. The Debbie Phillips Cervical Cancer Research Fund has been set up to fund research into cervical cancer. A concerted effort to understand the biology of this cancer will help to inform new drug development. We are proud to do this run in Debbie's honour and we hope to raise as much money as we can so that other mothers, daughters and wives will have a better outcome.
Debbie had regular cervical smear tests. Between 1990 and 2005 these were reported as negative, and when, by 2006, the cancer was finally identified, it had spread beyond her cervix and into her ovaries and lymph system. Surgery and intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy failed to cure the cancer. By 2008, the cancer had spread to Debbie’s brain and following a brain haemorrhage she fell into a coma. After yet more extensive treatments, the tumour in her brain hospitalised her for weeks and left her blind. Debbie battled on with extraordinary grace and courage for another 14 months and two further courses of chemotherapy. She refused to give in but, on 11th February 2010, following her long and brave battle with cervical cancer, Debbie died.
During her illness Debbie discovered that there was no research into cervical cancer therapies anywhere in the world, and compared with cancers such as breast and colon cancer, relatively few treatment options. A better understanding of how this cancer spread, understanding the biology of the disease, and identifying new therapeutic targets, as well as conducting clinical treatment trials, are urgently needed.
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