One More City is an annual cycling campaign during Breast Cancer awareness month (October) that moves from city to city, starting from where the previous year’s ride has finished. In 2018 we rode from London to Paris in 24 hours. Last year we did 630k from Paris to Amsterdam over 3 days. This year we ride 720k from Amsterdam to Strasbourg in 4 days, passing through 5 countries.
Much of breast cancer awareness, campaigning and research are focused around prevention and detection in the case of primary cancer, when the disease is confined to the breast and lymph nodes. Early diagnosis provides the best chance for survival, as the disease is curable in most people at this stage. However, an estimated 20-30% of primary cancers spread to other organs, which is termed ‘secondary cancer, and at this point, the cancer is no longer curable. Those diagnosed with secondary cancer will spend the rest of their foreshortened lives on some form of treatment.
The ethos of One More City is that the journey is never over; we are always progressing towards the next city, there are always more kilometres to do, more climbs to conquer and more challenges to face. This is akin to the reality of anyone living with cancer, especially secondary cancer, for whom the challenge is never over; there are always more treatments to endure, more scans to face, more side effects to manage.
Our fundraising will enable Imperial College to recruit a Ph.D student, which costs £80,000 for 3 years. By placing an outstanding young scientist in the exceptional scientific environment at Imperial College London, we aim to foster training that develops their potential to take her/his place as a future scientific leader solving new clinical problems.
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, so patients show differences in responses to chemotherapy and to hormone therapies. This student would join the breast cancer team in their efforts to identify the mechanisms underlying resistance to cancer drugs and for developing methods for classifying breast cancer patients on the basis of their gene expression profiles and response to therapies, towards defining the optimal treatment regimens for each breast cancer patient. It is through such studies that cancer therapies can be individualised, to ensure that patients receive only therapies most likely to benefit them and so are not subjected to unnecessary or ineffective treatments.
Funds raised by OMC will be held in a special fund by Imperial Health Charity until the £80,000 threshold is reached and a Ph.D student can be recruited.
More about breast cancer and the Imperial College Team
Breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer in Europe, with 150 new cases diagnosed every day in the UK alone. Intensive research in diagnostic and drug development efforts have resulted in remarkable falls in deaths from breast cancer, such that 78% of women survive 10 years or more after initial diagnosis.
Despite this tremendous progress, in 2016, 11,563 women died from breast cancer just in the UK. Many of these deaths are due to the ability of the cancer to re-establish following surgery and cancer drug treatment, by development by the cancer of resistance to cancer drugs. The team of breast surgeons, oncologists and scientists at Imperial College London led by Dr Suzy Cleator, Prof Charles Coombes and Prof Simak Ali has been working to determine the mechanisms by which resistance and consequently tumour regrowth and metastatic spread occurs.
One More City Team
2019 Ride Participants as of Feb 2019
Christine O'Connell, Aleda Fitzpatrick, Fenella Reed, Joel Levack, Lisa Ketteringham, Dan Glasser, Pau Wong, Alan Morton, Jasper Boyton, Shahin Vallee, Sam Weller, Hezron Ricketts, Liz O'Riordan, Angela Twickel, Eola Canham, Kristian Canham
2018 Ride Participants
Christine O'Connell, Aleda Fitzpatrick, Fenella Reed, Joel Levack, Lisa Ketteringham, Dan Glasser, Alicia Bamford, Pau Wong, Alan Morton, Tricia Bacon, Rob Heinrich, Victoria Arrowsmith, Blair Traynor, Caroline Bullen, Jasper Boyton, Tim McInnes, Peter Lunt, Laura Delnevo, Shahin Vallee, Filippo Ciucciomei, Sean Chavarria, Sam Weller, Kate Dellis, Hezron Ricketts, Pedro Batista, Jun Seki, Renaud Goldstein, Tianne Bell
Support Team:
Fiona Lyndsay, Angela Twickel, Steve Arrowsmith
