Hi

My names Lou Nicholls and from the 19th May 2016 i plan on trekking to Machu Pichu on behalf of Marie Curie.

But why?

In May 2009 my wonderful mum was rushed into hospital, she was suffering from undiagnosed Ovarian Cancer. It had been lurking for way too long, unspotted. She survived emergency surgery, the Cancer though had got quite far at this stage. She battled hard, she got through Chemo and made a bit of a recovery. Sadly though, less than a year later the news came through that they had found evidence it was returning and a second round of Chemo would be needed.

Our world shrunk to a round of hospital visits, praying and hoping for a miracle, sadly that miracle never came. Halfway through the second round of Chemo mum started going downhill, fast. Funny, witty and enormously brave, she would have us in fits of laughter. I never once saw her cry or feel sorry for herself, never once heard her say "why me?"

I would sit on her bed with her and we would talk for hours about the future, make plans. All the things you do when youre in denial of the reality of the situation. She allowed me to do that, i know that now, she would talk to me about the places we would visit, that i would visit, that i would come back and show her the pictures of. One of those places was Machu Pichu.

She said that although she didnt think she would be able to make the trek, i should and that i should bring back all the pictures and tell her all about it.

So why Machu Pichu? Because i promised mum

Why raise money? Because i promised myself

I hope that in the next year and a bit to document my preparations for this journey on https://mariecurietrek.wordpress.com/ , hopefully raise money for Marie Curie, Gain insight from others on what i need to do to make sure i get there and if i can inspire others to help.

For my beautiful mum and for everyone else whos been through this.

Thank you

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