I have never been very good at outdoor sports. This is relevant to my next statement!

 

On the 3 March my husband Noel and I took part in the Silverstone half marathon. He managed a very respectable 1 hour 57 minutes. I was just pleased to finish before they packed up in 3 hours 23 minutes! On the 8 June, I will also be tackling the Blenheim Triathlon, which involves a 750m lake swim, 19.8km bike and 5.4km run.

 

The 2 most common responses to this are – “are you mad” and “why on earth would you do that”. The first one is easy – absolutely! The second answer brings me to my reason for this message.

 

1 in every 800 pregnant women will find out that not only have they lost their baby during pregnancy, but that they have further complications in the form of a Molar Pregnancy. This basically means that rather than growing a healthy baby, they start to grow abnormal cells instead. The next steps do vary - often surgery to remove these cells and monitoring of hormone levels for 6 months is all that is required, however in rare cases further intervention is required.

 

If levels don’t return to normal, then the cells become classed as cancerous and whilst this type of cancer is curable, there is a risk that it can spread to the lungs, kidney, liver and even the brain. The first step is to start on a low dose of chemotherapy. This usually lasts between 2 and 4 months, although as with anything like this, it’s hard to put a timeframe on it. The vast majority of cases are solved like this but the patient will be monitored for the rest of her life to ensure there is no recurrence. If this is not successful, then the “full-on” chemotherapy that is usually associated with cancer is needed.

 

After all this, as well as the regular monitoring (decreasing in frequency after 6 years to once every 6 months for life), there is then the knowledge that the future risk of a 2 Molar Pregnancy is now 1 in 80. Should this happen then the risk of a 3 becomes 1 in 6, so the effects are felt long after the disease itself is cured.

 

With this in mind, a jog round a race track and a splash about in the lake at Blenheim Palace doesn’t seem so daunting after all!!

 

We would like to raise awareness of the disease and if we can, funds for the Cancer Research and Treatment Trust, who not only support the specialist centre based in Charing Cross Hospital in London that deals with the treatment, monitoring, support and research into this quite rare form of cancer, but also lung cancer research, and testicular and ovarian germ cell tumours.

 

We appreciate that there may be several events happening at the moment and things are tight, so even if you can’t sponsor us, then please do take a look at the websites below:

 

http://www.hmole-chorio.org.uk/

 

http://www.molarpregnancy.co.uk/

 

Thanks very much for your support

 

Noel and Jenny