On September 1^st, 2021, my cousin and good friend Jamie tragically died at the age of 19 after spending just three weeks in hospital. The day before his death, he had been diagnosed with liver sarcoma, a very rare and poorly understood form of cancer. Jamie’s death left us all with a huge mix of emotions, from the obvious grief of losing someone so close to us so suddenly to anger and confusion with our health services for why more was not done to save his life. With hindsight, however, there is no one to blame for Jamie’s illness and death but only a lack of understanding of such an aggressive and rare disease.

Jamie was an incredible guy, always positive, optimistic and full of ambition. In an attempt somewhat replicate Jamie’s inspiring bravery, I have therefore decided to walk a near 1000km route along the full length of England as a fundraising effort for Sarcoma UK. By raising greater awareness and funding, we will contribute to the continuous effort from Sarcoma UK in improving both treatments and diagnosis capabilities for patients with sarcoma, so that others don’t have to go through the same pain that we all have in losing someone so dear to us. My walk will join many of the main walking trails in England (Pennine Way, Manchester Horizon Walk, Staffordshire Way, Heart of England Way, Cotswold Way, Macmillan Way) to form one long route from Yetholm in the Scottish Borders to the Dorset coast near Abbotsbury.

Anyone who knows me well enough will be right in thinking that I haven’t done enough training to make this a stroll in the park. So I’m hoping that the more donations that come in the more the inevitable pain will feel worth it! In all seriousness, any donations will be endlessly helpful in the fight against sarcoma and will contribute to saving many lives, similar to that of Jamie’s.

Thanks for all the support,

Eddie