I am going to run the Great North Run for Childrens cancer North. I have run before but not for 2 years and I am carrying 15 kg of extra weight. I need to seriously get in shape and this will take some time.

I will tell you how I get on with this.

I have been a doctor in children's cancer medicine for 30 years 25 of those in Newcastle. Children (and their families) with cancer need 2 things- they need better treatments- kinder and more effective and they need help and support during their treatment. Children's cancer North does both these things and I am hugely proud to be a trustee of the the charity.

The standard treatment for children with cancer is provided by the National Health Service but our research, our new treatments and the support which families need comes mostly from charity. Children's Cancer North is what provides most of this.

Over the years I have seen many many children cured of their cancers. I have sadly also seen too many who were not cured or were cured but have lasting side effects. 

These are the challenges we face. 

Funded by the parent charity of Children's Cancer North and now the charity itself we have developed a service to offer new treatments to children in the North. It used to be that new treatments were only available in other countries or in London. We have brought these treatments to the children of the North. We could only do this because we had the charity funding to pay the research staff who deliver this. In the last 8 years we have offered new trials to more than 100 children. Opportunities they otherwise would not have had. Many children have had clear benefits from the treatments that we are now pioneering. We have become one of the places where these treatments are used first. The Children of the North deserve this. Once the kids in the North were at the back of the queue, With your support we can keep them at the front of the queue.

Children's Cancer North is dedicated to making life better for children with cancer across the North East and Cumbria. Around 100 children from across the region are newly diagnosed with cancer every year and come to the Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle for their treatment. Children's Cancer North aims to improve their quality of life through transforming the environment and play experience on the wards, providing access to potentially life saving clinical trials and funding revolutionary research to find more effective treatments.