In February 2017, 4-year old Drew Barker-Wright lost his battle to Chordoma, a rare and difficult to treat bone cancer that occurs in the head and spine. It is one of the many rare cancers which account for more than 25% of cancer cases worldwide and requires highly specialized care. Since losing their only child, Drew's parents, Mel and Jon have tried to find some positivity in all the heartache. Currently, they setting up a charitable trust in Drews' name. This charity will focus on raising money to fund paediatric chordoma research and support young children around the world whose lives have been devastated by this cancer.

Steve is fortunate to be a survivor of Chordoma, while Brian is a recent survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma. Both of us are active runners, with Steve spearheading an annual half-marathon fundraising campaign in the US, which has raised nearly £200,000 to accelerate Chordoma research, educate newly diagnosed patients to make sure they receive the best care possible and improve the lives of those patients whose battle is still ongoing.

We hope this will be the first event of many, bringing the half marathon fundraising campaign to multiple continents in order to support chordoma and other cancer research, while keeping the memory of those who lost their battles, like Drew alive.