We (James Barrett, Penny Barrett, Sarah Ford, James Hannaway, Johnny Powell, Andy Williams) are running the Virtual Edinburgh Marathon (around Harrogate and finishing at the Pannal Cricket Club Fan Zone!) to raise money for Frank's Fund which was set up in memory of 14 year old Frank Ashton from Harrogate, who died in February 2019 from Ewing sarcoma – a rare form of bone cancer.

Frank loved so much about life. Family and friends were the most important things to him. He loved all the simple things that every 14 year old boy enjoys - sleepovers with friends where they forced themselves to stay up all night, eating buckets of sweets and watching horror movies, playing in the park, kicking a ball, going to the cinema. And then there was Nando’s. Frank loved a Nando’s with his mates.

Sadly the research into the cause and treatment of bone cancer is greatly underfunded and that’s why we are asking our friends to donate to Franks Fund. Ewing sarcoma most commonly affects children and young adults aged 10-25 years old and makes up about 1.5% of all childhood cancers. A child, teenager or adult is diagnosed with primary bone cancer every 10 minutes, but primary bone cancer received just 0.04% of funding from the major UK cancer charities in 2017/18 and shockingly their investment in the disease dropped by 43% to a 16-year low. 

Treatment protocols are out of date and gruelling. It’s a scandal that the lack of investment means that neither treatment nor survival rates have improved in over 30 years and that there’s so little chance of survival if it returns.

Frank would never have wanted any child to suffer as he suffered. He would never want any family to suffer as his family are. If his death is to have any meaning at all, it needs to be to help people who are diagnosed in the future by raising funds that can be invested in much needed research.

For more details on Frank's Fund please see their web page here.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to saving lives & improving outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer. Despite being small, they fund more research projects exploring primary bone cancer than any other organisation. Other large UK cancer research charities do not prioritise bone cancer patients, in 2019 just 0.028% of their research spend went to bone cancer – not even close to 1%!Last year alone, Bone Cancer Research Trust committed an incredible £807,824 to pioneering bone cancer research - to save lives!