Stacy Hackner, Gaelle Chantrain, Sarah Hitchens, and Justin Yoo, have created team 'Egyptologists for Max' and recently ran the Amsterdam Marathon in honour of our dear friend and colleague Max Pinarello, to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Charity--to thank them for taking such good care of him. Max is an Egyptologist, who has been diagnosed with a cancer called myxoid liposarcoma. Sarcomas are a rare form of cancer of the bone and soft tissue. Half of those diagnosed do not survive. For more information on sarcomas, please watch this video: http://bit.ly/290kTUv.

In addition to Amsterdam, Justin is running 5 marathons in 4 weeks (27 days) to continue to raise money for the Marsden. 1st was the Chester Marathon on 2 Oct, 2nd was RunWimbledon on 8 Oct, 3rd was Amsterdam on the 16th run with the team, 4th will be Leicester on 23rd run with Sarah Hitchens who will be running the half-marathon, and 5th is the  Beachy Head Marathon on the 29th! Justin is running with very little training his inspiration for this is Eddie Izzard's amazing running feats and the fierce battle against cancer that Max and other cancer wage on a daily basis). Justin is running 6 in 6 weeks if counting Athens on 13 Nov!

Thanks to the great care given Max by the DOREMY clinical research trial at the Royal Marsden Hospital, his prognosis is good. He has undergone 3.5 weeks of radiotherapy and is about to have surgery in late August. Max wanted to find a way to thank the Royal Marsden and the NHS for the fantastic treatment he has been given. And with a liposarcoma in his knee, he isn't about to run a marathon anytime soon (although I wouldn't ever count him out!). But thankfully he has friends and colleagues who can do the running for him. Team 'Egyptologists for Max' are comprised of experienced runners who hope to support Max's recovery by running the Amsterdam marathon to support the the Royal Marsden, 'The world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.'.

Stacy, Sarah, and Justin are all alums of UCL's Institute of Archaeology (IoA) and studied Egyptian Archaeology with Max whilst there. Stacy is still a PhD researcher at the IoA, Justin is a PhD researcher at King's College London, and Sarah begins her PhD at Durham University this autumn. Gaelle is a PhD researcher in Egyptology at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.