Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is the only UK charity solely focused on tackling lung cancer, which is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK for both men and women. There is a stigma surrounding lung cancer with it often being related to smoking. But anyone can get lung cancer - young and old, men and women, smokers and non smokers, ordinary blokes and Olympians - it does not discriminate.

In December 2014 Chris sadly lost his Dad after a brave but painful battle with Lung Cancer. 

The main problem was the long period of misdiagnosis. The only symptom his Dad had was back pain, which was firstly considered a result of him overdoing himself whilst laying a base for a garden shed. However as time went on, the pain got worse and continued to mystify doctors and physios. Eventually after the pain and lost mobility led to his Dad being hospitalised, a series of tests and scans eventually found that the route of the problem was lung cancer that had spread to the base of his spine. By this point it was extremely advanced and treatments were designed to make his remaining time as comfortable as possible. 

Around late summer 2016 Steve had an idea of trekking the Himalayas, and doing it for charity. Chris thought he was mad, but after a short time came round to the idea! He wished to raise money for a lung cancer charity, not only in memory of his Dad but also to raise awareness of the disease. Steve very kindly offered to raise money for the same cause.

So please support us with our challenge to help raise funds for the research into this disease and support for those affected by it, but also to raise awareness of this disease and make it something that is more talked about.

Thank you,

Chris Thomas & Steve Betteridge