Neil is a friend from college. Last year a tumour was found in his eye resulting in the complete removal of his eye. Due to the type of cancer it is likely to return in his liver and there is currently no cure.

Neil is in his mid forties and a married father of three. His wife, Catherine, is currently embarking on her own fund raising adventure across the Sahara for OcuMel UK.

Their story moved us so much we decided to raise funds and awareness by challenging ourselves (and the strength of our marriage!!) by running this half marathon together. The Ox Half Marathon is a trail run meandering around the valley and hills of the Rushmoor Estate (located on the other side of zig-zag hill). 

OcuMel UK is a registered charity run by eye cancer patients and family members. They provide support for anyone affected by eye cancer. Though there is no cure for this they are hopeful there will be in the future. The team at OcuMel UK are working to bring the doctors and pharmaceutical companies together to make this happen.

Please donate anything you can, it will be gratefully received.

Below is Neil and Catherine's story that they have allowed us to use here. 

Please read it. Please watch the video (link at the bottom)...

....and DONATE DONATE DONATE!!

In April last year Neil noticed that his eyesight had worsened. He went for a routine eye scan and was referred to a specialist at Moorfields hospital. We were given the worst news that Neil had a cancerous tumour in his eye that was too big for any treatment except enucleation (removal of the eye). We told the girls that Daddy had a mole in his eye and was going to become a pirate, which they thought was very cool! Neil recovered amazingly and lots of people can’t even tell that he now has a prosthetic eye.

We hoped that our cancer journey ended there but unfortunately that wasn’t to be the case. A few months later the biopsy came back from the eye and it showed that it was a very aggressive form of uveal melanoma and that it is almost certain that it will have passed through his blood stream and will present itself in his liver at some point and tragically currently there is no cure for this. We have been told to make memories and enjoy the time we have, which we have been doing in style with a summer full of holidays.

I have really struggled. To be told that you may loose the man you love and a man who is a phenomenal daddy to our 3 kids is heartbreaking.

We don’t have good news to share on this, however we do have a ray of light. They are so close to finding a cure for this hideous cancer or at least giving the patients a fighting chance and the wonderful team at Ocumel are working so hard to bring the doctors and pharmaceuticals companies together to make this happen. However, this is a tiny charity, there are only about 400 cases in the UK of uveal melanoma a year, so there is no publicity for fundraising.

I can’t sit back and wait for worst to happen and therefore I have set a challenge to walk 100km of the Sahara desert in February and I would LOVE for you all to help me to raise money that could directly help Neil. Whether you would like to sponsor or do your own event / cake sale / fundraiser, or share our story with someone you think could help. We would love your help to reach our £5000 target.

Thank you for taking the time to read this xx

You can hear more about it by watching this clip featuring Neil that was shown at the Ocumel gala

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OFC80iGVXiM