Update: I have completed my run!! I came 202 and completed it in 1:23:20 so as expected I did not set any records but I did it! I thought of all the people who have donated money as I was running and you kept me going so thank you all very much. Alexander has also gone to Boston - he is having his first round of consultations on 08-July with treatment starting on 20-July so fingers crossed.
I am running to raise money for my brother - Alex Jones - for the treatment of his brain tumour.
Alex has a rare form of brain tumour - an astrocytoma of an unknown kind. His doctors have recommended he has Proton Beam Therapy to remove the tumour without causing collateral damage to the rest of his brain. However there are no facilities in the UK for provision of Proton Beam Therapy for anything other than eye tumours. This is despite the fact that about 1400 people a year in the UK would benefit from this type of treatment. The NHS currently fund about 40 people a year to go to centres around the world. Sadly Alex is not one of these 40 as his tumour is very rare and therefore does not meet the strict diagnostic criteria that they have to set.
He has been referred to The Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston which is one of the leading centres for Proton Beam Therapy. The cost of his treatment is likely to be about £150,000. As a family we are all putting in what we can but we need some help - so I am following in Alex's footsteps and taking up running (don't laugh) in the hope that you will sponsor me and we will raise enough to get him the treatment he so desperately needs.
For more information please go to Alex's web site www.protonbeamalex.com. Brainstrust are supporting Alex's fund raising efforts and all money raised by my run will go to Alex's fund directly.
Thank you for your support.
Lucinda
