Fundraiser of the month, May 2005

David Hillier was told in 2002 that he would be dead by now. He was suffering from prostate cancer at the age of 37.

However thanks to experimental chemotherapy and radiotherapy here and in New York - and a lot of cycling - he feels fit and well and has stopped asking the doctors when he's going to die.

Instead, he's preparing to cycle the forty-two mile Five Boroughs Bike Ride in New York City on 1 May, 2005.

"We're at the uncontrollable excitement stage now, having gone through the uncontrollable stress stage a few days ago", David told Justgiving.

He will be joined by 30 friends on the day, and plans to cross the finish line with as many of them as possible.

"The group has had different levels of training - from none to quite a lot. The idea for me is rather than to go round and prove I'm a good athlete is to be with as many of those people as possible when we go over the line, so it's a day we'll remember."

David and his friends have already raised over £115,000 online for the Prostate Cancer Charity and more offline.

"From an emotional point of view I suppose mine is quite an easy story to sell," says David with brutal honesty. However, working in the male environment of the City has meant a lot of people, who are able to give generously, have been moved to do so.

Raising money online also meant that the task was made easier for all the men joining the ride as they could contact a wide range of friends, colleagues in the US could donate easily and the pain of collecting the money was removed.

"We are all agreed that this is one of the best things the Internet has led to. Without the Justgiving webpage I doubt if we'd have got half that amount," says David.

He believes it's vital for people like him to raise as much money as possible for organisations like the Prostate Cancer Charity.

"Prostate cancer isn't as well supported as, say, breast cancer - possibly because it's thought to only affect old men. My case, and an increasing incidence of the disease in young men, shows that that is not true. There is a need for men of all ages to have access to well funded sources of information on the disease and help in coping with a diagnosis of prostate cancer."

You can show your support for David and his team by sponsoring him here.

If you’d like to raise money for a cause you care about, you can create a fundraising page straight away! Or, you can check our charity guide to see if your charity is already a member of Justgiving and if not, you can nominate them here. We'll tell them you want to raise money for them and if they join us, you can create a page and become another of our fundraising superstars!