Before I explain more around my cousin Maritess and her difficult situation, I just want to be clear that this is a PERSONAL fundraising page and not a traditional charity fundraising page (although I will still be doing an event). We will not be offended if you choose not to donate because you prefer to support charities more generally. However, if you choose to donate, you can rest assured that you will know exactly where your kind donation is going (to help save the life of my cousin) and I will be sure to keep you up to date as things progress.

My cousin Maritess has just been diagnosed with Stage 2 Ovarian Cancer at a very young age of 33. The main problem is that she lives in the Philippines so there is no access to free health care like we have here in the UK. Maritess is a kind, loving and selfless person. We are in contact through Facebook and even after receiving this news, her messages are still as upbeat as ever which is testament to the person she has become. I now hope we can do our part to hopefully beat cancer for Maritess as she still has the world at her feet.

She will require an operation in the next couple of months with chemo to follow. Current cost estimations for this treatment are approximately £3k for the operation and £1.5k for the follow up chemo therapy...so the target is £4.5k in total. This sort of money is hard to come by in the UK at short notice but even more so in the Philippines where wages are significantly lower.

I am not one to shy away from a sponsored event so will be looking to complete a 10k event next month with my Wife Laura (who has never run in an event before!!). This may not seem as challenging as some of my past events (Ironman etc). However, I haven't run any sort of distance event in 4 years, I'm seriously out of shape and will only have around 4 weeks to train! This will be a challenge for the both of us!

Thank you in advance for your donation, your money will be put to good use.

Neil