Recently, my Dad, the most important my in my life, was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. With just those few words, so many lives fell to pieces. We are still trying to come to terms with everything but as us Togneri’s do, we are certainly not going down without a fight! All hands are well and truly on deck in finding everything and anything that can help, and Marie Curie nurses are certainly going to be playing a part in this.

Dad is the most wonderful, fascinating, funny, kind hearted and loving man I have ever met. He has been with me through the toughest times in my life and stepped up when others fell completely flat. I love him with all of my heart and would give anything to take all of this away from him, and although I can’t help directly with that, fundraising is definitely helping to keep my mind occupied in working towards a fantastic cause. So if you can spare anything, even just a few pounds, I would be so thankful for your generosity.

Marie Curie is the leading charity providing care to people with any terminal illness in their own homes or in one of the charity’s nine hospices.

Marie Curie has almost 2,100 nurses, who work in the community to provide free end of life care to 94% of the UK population.

In 2013/14, we supported 40,844 people – 5% more than the previous year.

Marie Curie has nine hospices and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.

All of their services are always free to patients and their families.

For every £1 they raise, they spend 70p directly on helping people with terminal illnesses. They do this by providing nursing and hospice care, research into better ways of caring for people and work to improve care and support across the UK. They pay 50% of the cost of running their nursing service and 54% of the cost of their hospices. The rest of the funding comes from the NHS.

Marie Curie need to raise £5,500 every hour to cover the cost of their entire nursing service across the UK - so every penny really does help! X