• On the 7th October, myself and my close friends will be running the cardiff half marathon, we have decided to set up this page in advance as we want to make it our mission to raise as much money as we can for a cause we feel very close to our heart. My dearest and closest friend has sadly lived 15 years of her 20 years of life unwell, battling a fight against CNS Lymphoma, which is a type of malignant tumour that grows along the nervous system, that most commongly being the brain and the spinal cord, which has sadly been the case for my dear friend. This illness has formed many complications for my best friends life, from missing out of her early teenage life, to spending weeks on end in hospital wards tied up to a machine full of a solution that supposedly gets rid of the cancer, whilst making you feel more weak and ill than you did to begin with. My friend has attended radio interviews before where she had been asked questions about what chemotherapy was like, and something I can still vividly remember her saying is “As grateful as I am for all the help I have received and how lucky I have been in comparison to a lot of people I met on my ward, there was probably nothing I understood less as a 7 year old than sitting for hours on end in a room receiving treatment that was supposed to make me feel better, but waking up the next morning and throwing up until my insides were in pain, and a few months on losing my her, all my body weight and any ounce of motivation I had left”. All of this was happening for her whilst me and you were first allowed out on our own with our friends to the shops in town, whilst me were first trying out make up and bunking our first maths class, or sending notes to our best friend in maths class. Throughout all of this there is one thing I can say my best friend has never lost, and that is her kindness, and her, sometimes annoying heart of gold that always wants and tries to go above and beyond to try and help other people. Even strangers, especially strangers. Which is why it breaks my heart that after overcoming the toughest of times and getting a amazing ALevel results, getting into university and beginning a well deserved normal, late teen life, my best friend has recently had the news that staying on with full time education come next academic year isn’t an option due to the aggressiveness of the cancer. Thus hearing this I decided I truly wanted to try and be more like my crazy, kind hearted friend, so I want to raise as much money as I can for the Velindre cancer center, they have done so much for my friend and her family. From Disney trips, to massive help with donations towards getting the funding for trearments abroad, to creating an atmosphere in that hospital that makes so many young people feel like they can connect with other people in such similar situations. The Velindre Cancer center have a massive part of heart for the happiness they’ve brought so many people and the hope they help the family members restore once their special someone has passed. Would mean the world to me if you could donate, me and 7 of my (incredibly Unfit) friends will be running the Cardiff half marathon for this cause, that we, if you’ve actually read up to hear, clearly feel very strongly about. Hopefully with more fundraisers such as this we can help more families and people like our beautiful best friend get all of the support and hope that they so desperately need and deserve 😊