Does the name Giesecke & Devrient mean anything to
you?  Almost certainly not but they were the company that developed the SIM card which today allows our mobiles to connect to telephone networks.  What they did touches on all our lives today.

The Oak Cancer Centre may not ring a bell with you either but
should you or someone you know be one of the 1,000 people who gets a diagnosis of cancer in the UK every day, you will want to know that there is a hospital touching your life by doing everything they can to provide state of the art research and care facilities aimed at beating some of the most rare and challenging forms of cancer.

There is an Oak Centre at The Royal Marsden in Sutton already
and it looks after children and young adults suffering from all sorts of cancer.  We all became very aware of it in 2019 when
Naomi and Jonathan’s daughter, Iona, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 20.   She was successfully treated there and thankfully is now in remission as is the son of other longstanding friends.  Our connection to the Oak Centre is continuing as they are providing amazing care for the lovely and talented Melina Schoenenberger, the 24 year old daughter of dear friends of ours, who was at school with Iona. 

The Oak Cancer Centre is under construction, and The Royal
Marsden is appealing for funds to complete the £70m development by the end of 2022. 

Part of that fundraising effort is the Banham Marsden March, a 15-mile sponsored walk from The Royal Marsden in Chelsea to The Royal Marsden in Sutton. 

Due to COVID the March was cancelled in 2020 and again in
2021.  COVID is untroubled by the fact that the money is urgently needed to complete the Oak Cancer Centre but ingeniously, the walk is going ahead with participants doing their own 15 mile walk on Sunday 23 May 2021.

Naomi and Jonathan, and Margie and Gemma (whose own lives were
touched by losing both their dear Mum, Eileen, and brother Philip to cancer at the far too early ages of 59 and 61 respectively), have been friends for over 35 years and are joining forces to walk two- and a-bit laps of Richmond Park following the 7.35 mile Tamsin Trail during which we will talk about the many highs we have each experienced during our friendship and will reflect on some of the lows too.

If you were able to make a donation to spur us on our way we
would be immensely grateful but nowhere near as much as will be those 367,000 Britons who will be diagnosed with cancer in the coming year.

Many thanks

Naomi, Jonathan, Margie and Gemma