Most if not all of you will by now be aware of the massive challenges we have faced in the last few months. Anna, a young mum of two small children was diagnosed with an aggressive Type 3 tumour in October 2012. Since then, with the help of Professor Malcolm Reed of Sheffield and Professor Dodwell of Leeds, she has had a major operation and aggressive chemotherapy to try and beat triple negative breast cancer.

It's been a long, hard and mostly joyless journey. At the initial diagnosis we entered a dark tunnel of grief, guilt, anger, denial, fear, isolation and anxiety all colliding together in a hideous kaleidoscope of blind terror. There were bright spots when it seemed the cancer hadn't spread...and then we hit Chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is, quite simply, crap. It is the longest part of the journey and has been the most challenging emotionally. Chemo is there to evict the evil cancer but in doing so conducts a bloodbath of destruction, killing good growth cells (like hair) along with the bad in a war of attrition to save life. Chemo is angry, nasty ugly stuff. The quest to get better is a journey filled with monsters, cliffs and bogeymen. It is also punctuated with the cries of a babe in arms who doesn't seem to want to sleep regularly and the tears of a toddler who doesn't understand why the house is somber.

It takes a lot of courage to face a future with breast cancer. Which is why we hit on the idea of the Isle Half Marathon. Anna has never run that distance before (previous best was the Lincoln 10k) so it may be verging on the borderline of sanity to decide to run 13.1 miles while on a sick bed. But the race represents hope. It represents new beginnings. It represents getting well. 
 
If you can sponsor us, even for a small amount, we should be very grateful. All monies raised will, in the first instance, go towards Cancer Research at the specialist centre in Sheffield where the next generation of specialist support is based.

#TeamVerrico #Teamgetwell