Our team is taking this challenge in support of the Genesis Research Trust, because we all know someone who’s life has been touched by problems of conception, pregnancy and birth.

I am personally taking the challenge because of my daughter, Jessica. When I was aged just 19 I discovered that I urgently needed life saving Chemotherapy to treat my stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The treatment was almost guaranteed to be successful, but it was also almost guaranteed to leave me unable to ever father a child. When the treatment was over the tests came back and confirmed that there was no chance of ever reproducing. Despite this, my daughter, Jessica, was born, happy and healthy, in June of 2018. The IVF treatment that allowed me and many, many others in my position to become a parent was a direct result of the research being carried out by the Genesis Research Trust.

Also in the team is Martyn, who is taking the challenge because of his son, Sam. Sam, was born prematurely at 24 weeks weighing 1lb 5 oz, his arrival was a shock and the following hours, days, weeks were a haze of confusion, fear, hope, which was often dashed repeatedly, Sam was fighting for his life with the support of the wonderful neonatal staff. After a stormy few months in the neonatal unit (numerous infections, and a heart op at about 8 weeks) he came home, home oxygen and lots of hospital admissions followed. That was 14 years ago. Sam is now a healthy happy teenager. The Genesis Research Trust are pioneering ongoing research into the cause of premature birth, and hopefully reducing the amount of pre-term births.

Genesis Research Trust is the only charity of its kind to lie consistently at the heart of original leading-edge research investigating why and how things can go wrong with conception, pregnancy and birth; delivering real evidence-based results for medical treatments and outcomes of worldwide significance. Please help us to help them.