Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

As many of you are aware our family like so many others has been affected by cancer.  The impact of this has changed our lives so much in the last few years.  It is so important that we support wonderful charities like Bloodwise so that they can continue with the amazing research in developing new breakthrough treatments that are desperately needed now to save lives.

Our family has undertaken fundraising and supported Bloodwise for several years now and way back in 2019 Simon and I decided to embark on our biggest running challenge to date, the London Marathon.  This is personally something we have both had on our bucket list for sometime and the initial excitement and pride we felt of being part of the 40th race changed dramatically when the race we were supposed to run in April 2020 was cancelled due to the awful COVID pandemic and we were all thrown in to lockdown.  

Simon and I had started our training programme for London back in the summer of 2019 and were training right up until the April 2020 London Marathon was cancelled.  We therefore still decided to run a marathon together in our back garden last April as part of the 2.6 challenge!  With some kind donations from friends and family we still managed to raise some much needed funds for our charity.  

Since then we have continued to train hard, however, sadly the last three months of training hasn't quite gone our way.  We have persevered but with several periods of time spent in isolation and then finally us both getting COVID, the last few weeks particularly have been tough.  We are however still determined to do the very best we can, enjoy the experience and most importantly get around those 26.2 miles to raise an amazing amount of money for Bloodwise.

We wanted to share why supporting Bloodwise is so important to us....

We tragically lost Simon's Mum to non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  She lived a very full life for over 10 years following her initial diagnosis but sadly developed a very agressive and rare transformation called Richter's Syndrome.  Despite a very brave battle we sadly lost her just one week after diagnosis.  Richter's Syndrome is such a very high grade and rare lymphoma, it is still unclear what causes this cell transformation and currently there is very little that can be done to help those suffering.  Bloodwise has a number of research projects and clinical trials underway which is hoped could lead to new targeted therapies to stop the cancer cells from growing and dividing so rapidly.

My sister is currently still battling Chronic Myloid Leukaemia (CML).  The struggle is still hard and each day provides a new challenge, we see first hand the up and downs, the impact and side affects of her drugs and treatments.  It is fair to say the journey so far has had so many highs and low's but that only makes her and all of us more determined to fight and continue to support more research to find that breakthrough she so desperately needs.

You can feel very helpless at times even when you are trying your best to support family and friends.  Even though very small in the grand scheme we see this as a positive contribution to raise vital funds to support not just our family but all blood cancer patients.

We would be incredibly grateful of any contribution, no matter how big or small, every single penny received will go directly to Bloodwise. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you so much for your support.

Marie and Simon xx