On 5th May Mr Bing and I will be taking on the challenge of Copenhagen Marathon.

New to running we have tackled local 5k, 10k and half marathon events but nothing as far as 42km, so this is going to be a real challenge.The training so far has been gruelling however, not as gruelling as the past year has been for my friend Susan and her family.

A young mother of 2 lovely girls and wife to James she has been given the devastating news that she has incurable Secondary Breast Cancer.

I’m wanting to raise money for her and the family to make memories, have day trips, eat ice cream and be happy.

Susans story in her own words..

“On 12th July 2023 I’d been running a training session at work and was super competitive in an ice breaker to the point that I felt like I had pulled a muscle in my right pectoral muscle. I laughed and joked with my business partner about the pain but in reality I was finding it hard to breathe and laugh due to the pain it caused. 2 days later I could not breathe due to the pain I felt in my chest and back and took myself to A&E to be checked out. I underwent blood tests, X-rays, ECG’s, they established I wasn’t having a heart attack and sent me on my way with oramorph for the pain.

I returned to the doctors a week later to get checked over as I was still in a lot of pain and we had not established what was causing it. She listened to my lungs, took my blood pressure and was stumped and prescribed naproxen for the pain advising this could be inflammation of the chest bone. Another 2 weeks passed and the pain started to subside and I slowly began to return to physical activity. That was when I found the lump on my right breast wall. I visited the doctors again who advised this felt like a fatty cyst due to the location (felt attached to the sternum) but referred me to our local breast clinic for a breast examination.

The initial consultant advised it felt like a fatty cyst in my breast, and sent me to have a mammogram. The mammogram didn’t show the lump so I went to the radiographer who then advised she was very concerned about the consistency of the lump and an even bigger mass that she had found and that I needed biopsying.”

After several tests Susan received a preliminary stage 1 breast cancer diagnosis. However on 21st September 2023 she heard the news no one wants to hear. Her cancer had spread to her sternum, ribs and spine. Starting on a course of treatment Susan juggled parenthood, work and a plethora of hospital appoints during the latter part of 2023.

Entering 2024 Susan remained positive and had a great February making memories with friends and family. However, her cancer had other ideas and another lump started to grow. Her oncologist suggested it’s likely that the current treatment isn’t working on her HER2 positive breast cancer, showing just how aggressive the cancer is.

Remaining optimistic and trying different treatments Susan states “This cancer ride is pretty wild! But I’m not giving up and I will continue to fight to get as much time with the people I love as possible!"