UPDATE: As some of you may have heard, I have had measles. I have now recovered well from the illness but, unfortunately, I will not be well enough to take part in the Great North Run.

I am sorry to those of you who have sponsored me for the run although I hope you will still feel that your donation has gone to a very worthwhile cause. I am very disappointed that I will not be able to take part in the Run - especially after all the training I did in preparation.

I hope to take part in future events to raise money for the Eve Appeal and hope you will still consider sponsoring me in the future.

All that is left for me to say is thank you for your understanding and thank you for your donation to the Eve Appeal - all the money we can raise for the cause will help fund that essential research into gynaecological cancers.

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Yes, it's true that I've signed up for the Great North Run in October - I am really planning to run 13.1 miles!! You may be wondering why...

Put simply, I am taking part in this run in memory of my mother, Linda Butcher, who died from ovarian cancer in November 2006.

She fought the illness bravely for several years and during this time managed to complete a degree and start her new career as a teacher! She was an inspirational person and would have gone on to be an amazing teacher.

Losing Mum when she was only 49 years old was devastating, not only to me, but also to all our family and her friends.

Your donations will go to the Eve Appeal which was set up to save women’s lives by funding groundbreaking research into gynaecological cancers. Their current aim is to raise the last £2.6 million required to complete a research programme at University College London which aims to find techniques that will halve the death rates from ovarian cancer within 10 years. The programme includes the largest ovarian screening trial in the world.

Every year over 7,000 women across the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. 5,000 of them will die. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that halving this figure would be fantastic.

I don’t expect to finish in a record time as I haven’t done much running since I was at school (seems a long time ago!) – I am currently training in preparation for this but that’s more to stop me collapsing than to get a fast time!

I haven't set a fundraising target - I just want to raise as much as possible for this very worthwhile cause, any donation you make will be most gratefully received.

Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please sponsor me if you can and pass on the address of this page to anyone you think would be interested.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Eve Appeal will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor me now!

Many thanks for your support.

Please have a look at the following sites if you have some spare time:

http://www.eveappeal.org.uk/

http://www.aicr.org.uk/

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/