Freya's Fundraising Page

Freya McGrath is raising money for Bowel Cancer UK
In memory of Mark Wickens
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London Landmarks Half Marathon 2019 · 24 March 2019 ·

Back for it's second year, the London Landmarks Half Marathon is a closed road, central London run and is the only half marathon to go through both the City of London and City of Westminster. Expect fabulous views of Londons most iconic landmarks.

Story

I am running the London Landmark Half Marathon for Bowel Cancer UK alongside my friend Polly Wickens whose dad sadly passed away from the disease in June 2017. Below is a note from her on why we're doing this...

In June 2016 my dad, Mark Wickens, was sadly diagnosed with bowel cancer. Over the next year he underwent several types of treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy, before sadly passing away in June 2017.

Unfortunately the tumour caused a lot of pain, while the treatment caused horrible side effects of it's own. Due to the nature of the illness,  Mark also struggled with severe dehydration and spent a lot of time in hospital.

My dad was a great man and did not deserve to die, especially at the young age of 57. A year after my dad passed away, it was announced that the bowel cancer screening age is being lowered in England and Wales from 60 to 50. This is amazing news and hopefully will prevent many lives being lost to this horrible disease. Moreover, bowel cancer is treatable and curable if diagnosed early enough - nearly everyone survives the disease if diagnosed at the earliest stage. Unfortunately this drops significantly as the disease develops.

The lowering of the screening age should hopefully save millions of lives. So far, maybe due to earlier diagnosis and better treatment, the number of people dying of bowel cancer has been falling since the 1970s. But unfortunately it still affects so many of us. Here are some current statistics about the illness:

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK.

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK, accounting for 10% of all cancer deaths (2016).

Almost 42,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK. 

Around 268,000 people living in the UK today have been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

1 in 15 men and 1 in 18 women will be diagnosed with bowel cancer during their lifetime.

There are around 16,000 bowel cancer deaths in the UK every year, that's 44 every day (2014-2016).

I am running the London Landmark's Half Marathon on March 24th 2019 in memory of my dad, to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK. My chosen charity is the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity and fund targeted research, provide expert information and support to patients and their families, educate the public and professionals about the disease and campaign for early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care.

My amazing friend Freya McGrath has been unbelievably kind and has offered to run the race with me - also for Bowel Cancer UK. Hopefully together we can raise money for this amazing charity so we can help beat bowel cancer sooner!

Any donation, no matter how big or small, would be massively appreciated! Thank you all in advance.

Polly and Freya x

Donation summary

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£1,320.84
+ £178.75 Gift Aid
Online
£1,320.84
Offline
£0.00

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