Hello and thanks for visiting my JustGiving Page.

My Dad was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in late October 2016. He died six months later on 21st May 2017. It had come out of the blue.My best mate had been playing golf five days a week, having holidays with Mum and enjoying his retirement. Then this horrible disease came into our lives and it was pretty tough watching the old man fight it as hard as he could. But this was a fight he was never going to win.

When he died my immediate reaction was...Why? It had all been too quick and I didn't understand why there hadn't really been any hope and why Dad never got a fighting chance.

Pancreatic Cancer is horrible. Catch it early and you have got that fighting chance. But it is bloody hard to detect and normally when it is diagnosed its dirty work has already started.

I wanted to do something to help research into the disease and also help my understanding of what actually happened to Dad.  Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF) is already doing many wonderful things in this regard, funding pioneering research to uncover chinks in this cancer's armour to develop new treatments, finding ways to existing treatments more effective and developing a test to diagnose the disease in its early stages. After meeting their CEO Maggie Blanks, I decided I wanted to do something for PCRF to raise awareness of the disease and hopefully raise some money for the research.

But what should I do? As a man who only has one natural talent and that is sunbathing, my first thought of a sponsored "lying on a sun lounger" in Barbados appealed to me but I was not sure how much impact it would have. Dad loved his cricket and I love my running. Dad's two favourite grounds were the Kia Oval and Lord's but running once between them over a distance of five miles didn't seem much of a challenge.

And then I hit upon the bright idea of running between the two grounds four times a day over 50 days. That seemed more of a challenge. 200 runs over 50 days, running 20 miles a day and covering  1000 miles in total. As they would say in cricketing circles, "those are good numbers".

So on Monday 8th October I will set off from the Kia Oval for the first of my 50 days on the road. My last day will be Tuesday 4th December and hopefully I will have completed 200 runs for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund. One thing is certain, that I will know the route between the Kia Oval and Lord's very well.

I would be extremely grateful if you could donate to my cause - we can save lives through more research. And if you see me trudging along the road, please also give me a wave - that would be much appreciated to!

It will be hard work but great fun and I know the old man would have sat in a pub on the route to cheer me along. I am doing this for him and in some small way I hope I can help the brilliant work of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and their incredible work into battling this brutal disease.

I miss you Dad. I hope that by the evening of December 4th you'll think, "Well Batted Son".

Thank you.

Mark Church.