I successfully completed the New York City Marathon on Sunday 1 November in honour of my wife Leslie’s mother Dorine.  The first half of the run went extremely well, then there was the knee pain followed by the muscle cramps. Despite this I completed the run in a respectable time of 4:44:07 to pay back all the tremendous donations I have received so far.

Why the New York City Marathon as my first ever marathon?  Well 30 years ago, soon after arriving at Michigan State University I got a place in the 1985 race.  However my then girlfriend Leslie’s mum got sick and was diagnosed with colon (bowel) cancer and we started taking many trips back and forth between Michigan and Massachusetts to help out.  So much so that I didn’t have the time to train for the race and had to pull out. Sadly Dorine died just six months after diagnosis.

It’s taken 30 years for me to commit again to doing a marathon and therefore for my first ever marathon (yikes!) I wanted it to be New York City in memory of Dorine.  She died before Leslie and I got married at the age Leslie is now.  That’s sobering.

In 1985 only 38% in the UK and 57% in the US of those people getting diagnosed with colon cancer survived for five years.  Those figures have now risen to 60% and 65% respectively in large part due to the fantastic research and awareness raising work of charities like the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK.

In spite of these fantastic gains - that might have meant Dorine would still be alive had today’s research and screening been available back then - over a third of people getting diagnosed today still only survive for five years.  Therefore we need to keep raising money for new research, raising awareness and screening programmes.  Whereas Dorine never saw her daughter Leslie and I get married and have children, I want to make sure our generation have that opportunity.

I kicked off my fundraising campaign in July by running the Vitality British London 10k race with my son Jonny in aid of Cancer Research UK.  We then ran the Birmingham (where Jonny is at University) half marathon together in October and then I went on to the New York City marathon accompanied by Leslie.

To guarantee my place in the race I entered via the American Cancer Society and committed to raising a minimum of $3,400 (£2,235). Through the incredible generosity of family, friends, and work colleagues I reached that target in just eleven days and the total now stands at $4,689 (£3,083).

I'm humbled by that.  But I'd like to see how much further we can take this now for a UK charity.  

Let's see if we can raise a similar amount for Cancer Research UK.

So please dig deep and donate as much as you can.

Many thanks, Rob