Hi everyone!!!

First of all thank you for getting this far.. hopefully you're only a click away from making a sizeable donation ;)

This Summer I am on a mission to raise £6,000.00 for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity by completing a number of physical and mentally tasking challenges. Your donations will go directly to the charity and I am hoping to raise £1000 per event!


For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lara Sampson and I am 24 years old... Last year I was (what felt like randomly) diagnosed with a form of blood cancer called Marginal Zone Lymphoma, a type of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It was bizarre because I felt sort of fine except I had started to go deaf... Naturally, I thought this was just a result of Glastonbury and far too much partying across my birth-month but in fact turned out to be due to a tumour which had formed in my post-nasal space (where the adenoids are located inside your head). Anyway, the next few months became some sort of a distorted reality as I was in and out of hospitals and everyone was trying to work out what exactly was wrong with me. That was until December when I finally undertook Radiotherapy treatment with the view to being completely cured. (I am now just waiting for my next scan in June to give me the all clear!)

During this weird phase in my life I discovered the power of exercise which really helped me to stay positive at all times, something that I believe is extremely important and paramount to your mental health... and so I have decided to try to thank all of the amazing members of staff at The Royal Marsden Hospital, the doctors and nurses who really made the whole experience bearable, and contribute to the battle against cancer by fundraising and signing myself up to a series of gruelling challenges which will also help me get fit on my road to recovery.

The itinerary goes as follows:

1st-30th May: Walk-to-work for a month (11 miles round trip) and get in on-time at 9am, which if you know me is a feat in itself!!

6th-8th July: National Three Peaks Challenge, climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 48 hours (23 miles hiking, 3064m ascent and 462 miles driving)

8th September: Woburn Abbey Olympic Triathlon, 1500m swim, 40km cycle, 10km run

22nd September: Swim Serpentine,1 mile swim around the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park

12th October: Tough Mudder, 5km obstacle course (10 obstacles)

14th October: Royal Parks Half Marathon (and this time I'm hoping I don't finish last)




About The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity:

We raise money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, we will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

With your help The Royal Marsden...

Pioneers the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies; the use of precise intensity modulate radiotherapy for head and neck cancer trials were so successful it was rolled out across the NHS

Can fund clinical research posts and trials with over 800 clinical trials open at any one time

Pioneered the use of the da Vinci S robot, along with the UK’s first robotic fellowship programme to train surgeons in advanced surgical techniques to treat prostate cancer patients; the da Vinci S is now in use in over 20 NHS Trusts across the UK

Can work with its academic partner to develop powerful drugs such as abiraterone for prostate cancer and tamoxifen for breast cancer

For more information please visit their website: www.royalmarsden.org/about-us