With a new year upon us, we three Fenn sisters (& Nige) have decided run in support of charities whose work has directly impacted our lives over recent years.

The first charity we have chosen to support is The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. It is estimated that around 15% of breast cancers are triple negative. This was the type our mother, Samantha, was diagnosed with in 2016. Fortunately for us all she was diagnosed in the early stages, and following treatment she is once again fighting fit, and in complete remission. However, we are very aware that this is often not the outcome for many others, and the funding that goes towards discovering new treatments for TNBC patients is invaluable.

The money we raise will also be split with the mental health charity, Mind. We are strong believers in eradicating the stigma attached to mental health, and empowering people to understand their condition and the choices available to them. Supportive and reliable information can change lives and prevent traumatic experiences. At present, Mind’s strategy is focused on building change by campaigning to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. We firmly support their goal which is to ensure everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets both the support and the respect they deserve.

Finally, we have chosen to support the British Heart Foundation, whose research certainly played a huge part in mending Nige’s (Dad) ticker. Heart and circulatory diseases are responsible for more than quarter (!!) of all deaths in the UK. Dad was only 49 when he was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm, which required immediate surgery. The wait for this operation on the NHS is currently a minimum of 9 months – by which time it is often too late. Prevention methods and raising awareness are, therefore, as important as medical research. Money raised in support of the BHF goes towards programmes such as the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, which is currently in place for men aged 65 and over across the UK. It is crucial that programmes like these receive sufficient funding, so that individuals can be made aware of such defects prior to them becoming fatal.

We all feel extraordinarily lucky given the circumstances that our family is still here in full, and are so grateful to those who have supported these charities in the past, whose money would have in one way or another, contributed to providing care for our family during these tricky times. Please help us to raise money for these worthwhile causes. We are all rubbish at running, so this ain’t gonna be easy!!!!!!!