In the autumn of 2012, my dear friend Matthew went to the doctors for some routine blood tests only to find out he had two fractured vertebrae in his back and this was because he had something called Multiple Myeloma. This means that he has cancer. Within a month he was travelling to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge almost every day for a mixture of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He completed the treatment in April 2013, at which point he was declared as being in a "very good partial remission". Why not a full remission? Myeloma can't be cured, it's always there, and it always comes back.

Surviving the treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy isn't always as easy as people imagine. Treatment has a high chance of causing nerve damage in hands and feet. For Matthew, it resulted in permanent severe damage to the nerves in his feet, to the point that he is now unable to walk unaided and is wheelchair bound. With more research and development, the drugs can be improved to reduce the chance of such side effects, and improve the effectiveness against the cancer itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2xw9efsuA 

This year I have set myself the challenge of completing a series of events to really push myself (those of you who know me well will know that I am not the best of runners!) and raise as much money as I can for Myeloma Cancer research. Over the course of the next couple of months I am going to be taking part in The Yorkshire Warrior, Yorkshire Mud Run, Spartan Sprint, Colour Run Obstacle Race, Major Series, Hull 10K and some Race for Lifes. phew!

Please help me to reach my target of raising £600 for such a worthwhile cause.