As most of you may know, 10th May 2018 will be Andrew's 10 year anniversary. So, family, friends and I wanted to do something positive to celebrate how lucky we were to have him in our lives, for the short time we had him, and take the lessons we've learnt over this past decade & put them into practice. 

Andrew battled with cancer for three years. I use the word "battle" as at one point we very nearly thought he had beat it, as he was feeling and looking great, but that turned out to be the calm before the storm. Closer to the end, we became very open to the fact that his cancer was terminal and we spoke about everything!; the memories we made, the memories we wished we could've made, family, friends, holidays, technology, spirituality, religion, final arrangements, what we would buy first if we won the lottery, his love of cars, how crap my car was, etc!  3 days before he passed, Andrew said to me "Get yourself out there and make your mark. When you're tired, come back to me." Quite a profound thing for a 26 year old to say, who's favourite film was Rambo! But after watching his sister, Angela's, light being blown out by bowel cancer 4 years prior, then seeing his own light dimming, Andrew made me promise that I would make the most of this life and not take my time here for granted. So, a decade on, here we are & there's a group of us wanting to "make our mark". 

What we're doing

We aim to do a challenge every month (starting from March 2018......we need Jan & Feb to work off our winter fat & turn them into Spring rolls!!) for the next year. The aim/plan so far is:

1. MARCH 2018

Date: Sat 3rd March
Event: Mad March Mare 2018
Location: Hexham Racecource
Price: £50pp to join our team, "Making Our Mark For Andrew"
Details: A 10k muddy run with 37 obstacles
Website: http://www.madmarchmare.co.uk/ 
Affiliated Charity: Sara's Hope Foundation

2. APRIL 2018

Date: Sat 7th April 
Event: 3 Lochs Way
Location: Balloch, Scotland
Price: £45pp
Details: 1 day to walk 34 miles along the Highland Boundary & Southern Highlands, with Loch Lomond, The Gareloch and Loch Long as constant scenery. (Expected to take approx 12 hours) 
Website: https://www.purechallenge.co.uk/…/eve…/3-lochs-way-34-miles/

3. MAY 2018

On Andrew's actual anniversary his parents and I will scale Cheviot. The Cheviot is the highest point in Northumberland (2,676 feet, 816 metres)
Pauline & Ed have done it before, but this is a first for me.

4. JUNE 2018

Date: Sun 10th June 
Event: Snowdon Sunrise Walk 
Location: Mount Snowdon, Wales
Price: £38 (Should have been £45 but the lovely Simon has offered discount as we are doing it for charity), which also includes a cooked breakfast in a local cafe at the bottom. 
Details: Climb to the 1,085m summit of Mount Snowdon in the dark (under the stars & moonlight sounds a tad more welcoming!!) to see the sunrise from the top (at approx 04:50am) & descend on the new day. 
Website: https://www.svladventures.com/

5. JULY 2018

Date: Sat 21st July 
Event: Rough Runner North East 2018
Location: Lambton Estate, Chester-le-Street
Price: £48pp to join our team, "Making Our Mark For Andrew"
Details: A 10k obstacle course, inspired by Total Wipeout, Takeshi's Castle, Gladiators and Fun House. Expect a 40m slide, giant pigeon battles, sweeper arms, big balls and yes, The Travelator!! 
Website: https://roughrunner.com/events/north-east/
Affiliated Charity: British Heart Foundation

6. AUGUST 2018

Date: TBC closer to the time, but currently planned for Sun 12th Aug
Event: Schooner Bike Ride 
Location: Gateshead Quayside
Price: TBC but last year was £20pp, price also included a pint & entrance to the finishing BBQ which had a band on. 
Details: Bike ride from the Schooner up to Wylam & back. Stopping in at a "few" breweries on the way, to make things a tad more merrier. 
Website: http://theschooner.co.uk/
Affiliated Charity: Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care

7. SEPTEMBER 2018

Date: Sun 9th Sept
Event: Great North Run 2018
Location: Newcastle - South Shields
Price: £55pp 
Details: My ultimate nemesis! 13.1 mile run, which I have said I'm going to do every year, since I was old enough, but never have, as I absolutely cannot run long distances! This is the one I'm dreading the most! 
Website: http://www.greatrun.org/great-north-run

8. OCTOBER 2018

Date: Sat 13th Oct 
Event: Newcastle Stampede
Location: Gosforth/Newcastle Racecourse
Price: £35-37pp 
Details: 10k obstacle mud adventure run. The unique & challenging obstacles will be designed by the Queen's Own Yeomanry Squadron to push you to the limit! 
Website: http://www.newcastlestampede.com/
Affiliated Charity: Global's Make Some Noise

9. NOVEMBER 2018

Date: TBC closer to the time, but currently planned for Sun 25th Nov
Event: Walk across all of the bridges over the River Tyne
Location: Along the River Tyne
Price: nil
Details: Walk along every bridge that crosses over the River Tyne. Im still busy plotting this route & checking out how many bridges we can actually walk across (14 bridges mapped so far), but I will be updating this page on a regular basis, so I'll keep you all posted.

10. DECEMBER 2018

Date: Wed 26th Dec
Event: Boxing Day Dip 
Location: The Dunes, South Shields
Price: £5 registration
Details: Run into the North Sea (it doesn't count unless you put your head under aswell!) to give yourself a nice wake up after the Xmas festivities. 
Website: https://www.stclareshospice.co.uk/events/boxing-day-dip
Affiliated Charity: St. Clare's Hospice

11. JANUARY 2019

Event still to be confirmed. All ideas are welcome! I will be updating this page on a regular basis, so I'll keep you all posted.

12. FEBRUARY 2019

Event still to be confirmed. All ideas are welcome! I will be updating this page on a regular basis, so I'll keep you all posted

How You Can Support Us

So many of you have already done so much, with your kind words, supportive & motivational messages, help in organising the calendar of events, etc, but it would be great if we could do a little more.....

Donating - Ideally we would like to raise £1,200 for the Charlie Bear for Cancer Care fun (works out at £100 for each event). This JustGiving page is a collective page for everyone taking part in any of the events & the page will be open until March 2019, so please don't feel pressured to donate straight away (I know Jan & Feb are normally skint months), but if you could put in a pound or two when you are feeling flush that would be hugely appreciated.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

https://www.justgiving.com/fund…/rachael-white-makingourmark 

https://www.facebook.com/AYearOfMakingOurMark/

Taking Part - We are all in the same frame of mind that "the more, the merrier" so if you fancy joining us on any of our events just drop me a message and I can send you the participant info. Feel free to also invite your friends, family, colleagues, etc.

Morale Support - If you don't fancy doing any of the events (and I don't blame you!) a lot of the events are geared up for spectators, so we would love to see your lovely, warm, relaxed faces, whilst we give you a bit of a laugh at our efforts! We're all going to have to do quite a bit of training in the next coming months, so feel free to come along to some of our training sessions, runs, walks, etc or you can also give me a kick up the butt if I'm being lazy!

Sharing - Teamwork makes the dream work! If you could all share this page with your friends and family to get the word out about "our year of Making our Mark" and the Charlie Bear Cancer Care fund it would be hugely appreciated. Obviously, we would like to raise as much money as possible but raising awareness of the Charlie Bear fund is also imperative to them continuing to make a difference.

About the Charlie Bear for Cancer Care Fund

I chose the Charlie Bear for Cancer Care fund as its based in, and dedicated to raise funds for, the NCCC (the Northern Centre for Cancer Care) at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. This is where you, I, our family or our friends would go if we were ever unfortunate enough to become ill with cancer. It's where some of my friend's families are currently being treated. It's where a lot of the staff who treated both Andrew & his sister, Angela, currently work. It's in our town, it's our community!

The original Charlie Bear Appeal was launched in 1978 by Daisy Clark MBE in memory of her husband, Charlie, to help raise £1 million to purchase the North East's first whole body CT scanner. In December 2011, by an appeal launched by their Patron, Sir John Hall, Charlie Bear assisted in funding & bringing a £3 million state of the art Stereotactic Radiotherapy facility for the NCCC. The system is capable of delivering radiation with pin-point accuracy to tumours that are difficult to treat by surgery or conventional radiotherapy. Treatment can now be completed in just a few short radiotherapy sessions instead of weeks. It means cancer patients in our region are now benefiting from the most advanced form of radiotherapy in the country. Charlie Bear donations have also purchased a luminous SkyCeiling for the Stereotactic Radiotherapy facility – a virtual skylight which gives the illusion of real sky views to alleviate stress and help patients relax, whilst undergoing treatment. They also offer complementary therapies alongside normal medical treatments. They have a team of qualified therapists who use gentle touch and relaxation techniques to achieve a sense of well-being which may help patients cope with some of the stresses caused by cancer and its treatment.

All of this has been made possible through the huge generosity and fundraising efforts of the north east public whose donations to Charlie Bear continue to support local people with cancer.

"Providing exceptional patient care is at the heart of everything we do at the NCCC and charitable donations are an important part of that. They enable us to keep pace with fast-moving developments in medical equipment and treatment allowing us to achieve things far more quickly than would otherwise be possible. We have been able to buy more sophisticated equipment, extra patient comforts and provide specialist staff training and funding for local research projects to develop new treatments and technologies."

The Charlie Bear for Cancer Care fund is administered by the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Charity - Reg No. 1057213.