So…this is my story:

I have had breast cancer 3x – the first time was 15 years ago …left breast lumpectomy followed by chemotherapy 6 rounds (a bit like bleach going through your system….gets rid of everything acne, hair, eyebrows, wrinkles the lot) followed by radiotherapy (a bit like sunburn…but only in one spot and without the “summer glow”); the second time was 2 years later…..just as my hair had grown to the length it was before I got cancer the first time I found a lump in my right breast…so I had right breast lumpectomy (to be fair this meant they were now a matching pair again and I could consider throwing in my job as a lawyer and move to lap dancing….every cloud ….)  chemotherapy 4 rounds (all hair lost again….some places good other places not so much) and radiotherapy (again sunburn… but on the other side); and the third time was 4 years ago….this time it was the eventual double mastectomy (a bit like an 11 year old pre-pubescent girl…. looking younger by the day) chemotherapy 12 rounds (was meant to do 18 but really felt I had done my time with the chemo over the years and we were no longer mates – just didn’t seem to like my hair)….no radiotherapy as no breasts left to burn. And finally to top it off  3 years ago I got lymphedema - a consequence of having my lymph nodes removed – in my right arm (called my fat arm) .....hence the sleeve in the photo.

That’s it…that’s my story. And now I am running the London Marathon 2017 (my first and likely to be my only marathon) for the most wonderful, amazing charity – Maggie’s Cancer Centre Oxford – because I want to give something back for all the care,  love, kindness and hope I have been shown by so many people over the last 15 years …during some very dark and tearful times…..and to prove there is life after cancer.

Please help me raise as much money as I can for Maggie’s - this is the first time I have sought sponsorship of any kind and I am honoured and privileged to be running for them…their care, their love, their understanding is unparralled; they are a beacon of hope when life is very dark and very scary, when the fun and giggles of living  temporarily disappear and when dreams are hidden away in a back pocket until the time they can be taken out, dusted off and lived.

https://www.maggiescentres.org/our-centres/maggies-oxford/