Thank you for taking the time to visit my Justgiving page for Children with Cancer UK.

Almost 4,000 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer every year in the UK. That’s ten every day. Children with Cancer UK is the leading national children’s charity dedicated to the fight against childhood cancer. They fund life-saving research into the causes, prevention and treatment of childhood cancer and they work to protect young lives through essential welfare programmes.

My journey with fighting cancer started when I was just 16 years old. I was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996, treated with 6 months of chemotherapy followed by 20 days of radiotherapy. My life carried on I finished my studies at university, got married and had our first child in 2010. It was just before our daughters first birthday that I noticed another lump in my neck. After numerous visits to the GP and many hospital appointments I was diagnosed with differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma in 2011. I never expected that I would have to deal with cancer again but the journey of fighting this disease begun once again. I had a total thyroidectomy and neck dissection (removal of 27 lymph nodes). 6 weeks after surgery I was told that not only did I have thyroid cancer but I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of large B-cell lymphoma. As you can imagine having to deal with one form of cancer would be enough for anyone but having to deal with it all over again whilst also trying to raise a young family was almost to much to bare. After a long and difficult battle, enduring months of operations, chemotherapy and radio active iodine I pulled through. 

Less than 12 months ago I gave birth to my second daughter after been told I may never have anymore. Slowly but surely I have pieced my life back together. I've been in remission almost 5 years to the day.

Having cancer as an adult is hard enough to deal with, we have the ability to comprehend and rationalise what we may ultimately have to deal with. The thought of any parent having to explain to their diagnosed children the nature of this horrible disease breaks my heart just to think about it. This is why I decided that I was going to run the Virgin London marathon for the Children with Cancer UK charity, and maybe, just maybe, my contribution can lead to the prevention of the needless suffering that so many young children have to deal with on a daily basis.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I hope you will help me raise money for this great charity. Please sponsor me whatever you can and thank you in advance for all your support and generosity.

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