Secondary breast cancer is cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body. There are around 55,900 new breast cancer cases in the UK every year, that's more than 150 every day (2016-2018). Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 15% of all new cancer cases (2016-2018).

Despite the best available treatments, it remains the second leading cause of death for women with cancer. While new treatments are enabling more people to live longer with this disease, the fact remains that only a small portion of breast cancer research funding is devoted to secondary breast cancer. This is why your help now is so impactful.

Christine O’Connell, who was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2013, created One More City in 2017 when she and 3 friends rode from London to Paris in 24 hours to raise money for breast cancer support services. As she was training for One More City’s second fundraiser in 2018, Christine learned that her cancer had returned, and it had spread to her brain and bones. This is when her journey as a secondary breast cancer patient and advocate began.

The goal of One More City is to cycle from one city to another, setting off each year from the city they finished in the year before. In 2017 four riders rode from London to Paris and 2018 saw a team of 30 ride from Paris to Amsterdam. Since then, rider numbers have grown, and the multi-day annual rides have taken them through the UK, France, Germany and Italy – with riders raising funds for much-needed research.

In recent years, a series of global one day fundraising rides have been added to the One More City roster. Rides have been hosted in Sydney, Melbourne, Fukuoka, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manchester, and London – with more than 450 riders across the 10 cities.

The One More City campaign has generously raised funds to support three research positions at the ICR. Funds have made research projects by Hwei Minn Khoo and Shaun Tan possible. Hwei Minn commenced her project in October 2023 in Dr Rachael Natrajan’s lab, investigating treatment resistance in triple-negative breast cancer. Shaun started in Professor Vicky Sanz-Moreno’s lab in November 2024 and is looking at how and why breast cancer spreads. Most recently, funds have been raised to support an upcoming Clinical Research Fellow position in Professor Sanz-Moreno’s lab to further push the ICR’s research into advanced breast cancer.

We are excited to share details about the next project being supported at the ICR by One More City in the near future.