Hi, 

As you can see I am raising money in memory of Michael Johnson. Michael and I met at Bradford College where we both studied social work together. Along with Jools and Rosie, Michael soon became one of my good friends and as a group we regularly met together socially (the photo above was taken on Jool’s birthday night out, Michael is on the far right of the photograph).

Michael became ill in 2009 and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He had an operation to remove the tumour and, after a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, we were all very optimistic that he had won the fight against cancer. Sadly in 2012 Michael received the devastating news that he had another tumour and that it was untreatable. At the age of just 34 years old Michael passed away in June 2012.

During Michael’s illness he was passionate about raising the awareness of brain tumours, and campaigning to secure funding for research into prevention and cures. In the UK 16,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year and more children and adults under the age of 40 die of a brain tumour than any other cancer - yet brain tumour research is woefully under-funded.

Before he passed away I promised Michael I would raise money specifically for research, and I chose to the Brain Tumour Research charity for this reason. They opened their first "Centre of Hope" in November 2012, the first of many research centres due to be opened in a bid to create a global network of research facilities with the aim of finding a cure for the terrible disease. Two further centres are planned to be opened this year and any money donated will be used by Brain Tumour Research to help fund research in these centres. Visit www.braintumourresearch.org for more information.

Running a marathon is not going to be easy for me, and I have already spent about 6 months improving my fitness to a level where I can even contemplate it. Even so it will be difficult, however I felt that I wanted to do something which would require a sustained effort on my part, as my personal tribute to Michael, and I hope you feel that it is a challenge worthy of your sponsorship.   

 

Thank you for visiting my page, taking the time to read this and hopefully making a donation.

Lisa x