Thank you for taking the time out to visit my Race For Life sponsorship page!

We all know someone who has been affected by cancer. Events like Race for Life are vital in funding Cancer Research UK’s lifesaving work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer. By sponsoring me now you can help more people survive cancer

So why am I taking part in Race For Life?

Well there are many reasons!

I currently work for the National Health Service Cervical Screening Programme (NHSCSP) as a Biomedical Scientist. The main basis of my job involves screening cervical smears to detect pre-cancerous abnormalities  The cancer screening programmes look for early signs of a particular disease in 'healthy' people who do not have any symptoms. Screening for cancer aims to find cancers as early as possible - when the chance of cure is highest. Sometimes screening programmes can find changes that would lead to cancer if they were not treated. So cancer screening aims to prevent cancer or detect it at a very early stage. Cancer Research UK is dedicated to beating cancer through research. I feel by taking part in the Race For Life this year is a different way for me to contribute to both the screening programme and Cancer Research UK.

As stated above, we all know someone who has been affected by cancer be it a relative, a friend, yourself, a colleague or the lady you see in Tesco every week! My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2004  and after several operations and chemotherapy treatments he is currently in remission, and monitored on an annual basis. The chemotherapy treatment would not have been possible if it wasn't for Cancer Research UK who are involved in the research and development of numerous cancer treatments

Although the first two reasons are fantastic reasons to run the Race For Life the main reason I am running it is for myself. Since January 2009 I have lost 22.6kg to date (11.06.2010)!  One of my New Year resolutions for 2010 was to run the Race For Life this year and I have been training really hard to a) participate and b) improve my fitness in preparation for when I eventually reach my goal weight  There are numerous doubters out there who do not think I will take part or even complete this race, but I am hell bent on proving them wrong  I have been keeping a blog of my training and progress, please feel free to check it out: http://www.s666jam.co.uk To date my current personal best for running 5km is 39.31 minutes  So by participating in this race means I will be raising money for a good cause and beating my own personal demons  and doubters! I have a wonderful boyfriend (Niall), a very good friend (Mr Posh) and confidence booster (Karen) who have supported me no matter what throughout my training and I'm not going to let them down!

JILL