On the 4th of October 2019 I plan to row 100km (100,000m) on an indoor rowing machine, within 12 hours, in aid to raise funds for Maggie’s. To put this in perspective that’s almost two and a half times a marathon distance. Depending who you ask the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool travels approximately 88km, so it’s a bit of an undertaking.

Maggie’s is a charity that provides free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends, following the ideas about cancer care originally laid out by Maggie Keswick Jencks.

The centres are built in the grounds of NHS cancer hospitals. Maggie’s Centres are places with professional staff on hand to offer the support people need. Here you can find practical advice about benefits and eating well; places where qualified experts provide emotional support; places to meet other people; places where you can simply sit quietly with a cup of tea. They also put on a range of activities and workshops for cancer sufferers at no cost to the patient.

The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and since then Maggie’s has continued to grow, with 20 Centres at major NHS cancer hospitals in the UK and abroad. Maggie's also has an online centre.

Some of you reading this may wonder why I want to do something to raise money for such a worthy cause and the why is everything to me. Many people reading this will know that my wife, Louise, was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer. Since then she’s had chemo, operations to remove the lump and lymph nodes, radiotherapy, is still receiving drugs every three weeks and will be taking tablets for 5 years. She has however made an amazing recovery from all these ordeals. Today she looks as healthy as she ever has. Further October is traditionally Breast Cancer awareness month. So by doing this charity event I can raise money for Maggie’s and raise awareness of Breast Cancer, especially in young women.

I naively thought that breast cancer was something that affected women in their 40’s or older. Lou is 35 and it came as a shock. If this had been 10 years ago it maybe wouldn’t have been looking so great? Maybe that’s in part the funding increasing allowing breakthroughs, quicker scans and Women (and Men), yep they get it too occasionally, getting to grips with checking themselves more often. 1/8 women will be affected!

During the treatment Maggie’s were amazing. A place to meet other people going through the same emotional wringer as Louise. Without funding they can’t operate and funds are almost entirely raised from voluntary donations. It costs £2400 to run one centre for one day. Below is a link to the many, many ways they offer support for free. As you can see it’s extensive and quite brilliant for all this to be free to cancer patients. Plus they build new centres regularly.

https://www.maggiescentres.org/how-maggies-can-help/help-available/

As such I have set myself a massive, huge, ridiculously ambitious challenge equal to the effort required to complete the row of attempting to raise half the money required to run a centre for one day, £1200.

The money raised via just giving will go to the general fund as opposed to a specific centre so no matter where in the country you donate from you or your family may benefit one day from your donation, though I truly hope you don’t have to. Any money raised from sponsorship forms or on the day in the buckets will go specifically to the Edinburgh Centre so that local donations are used locally. I’ve discussed this with Maggie’s fundraising team and they are on board!!!

Thank you for reading this and if you have donated, many, many, many thanks from Louise, Maggie’s and I.

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