Personally I'm raising money as I believe everyone has been directly or indirectly impacted by cancer and I want to make a positive difference. In my 20's I had pre-cancerous cells removed, these may or may not have turned into cancer. My children have lost 2 of their primary school friends due to cancer, I have lost one of my friends, and also a Mother of one of the children who passed away due to cancer too. Fortunately we know many more people who have survived cancer which gives us much hope.

Last October I collapsed outside of A&E after getting out of my sisters car. I'd experienced abdominal cramps during the morning which had got progressively worse whilst working from home, no signs of any issues the day or night before so at lunchtime, in incredible pain, we went in. Scans showed the symptom, a twisted small intestine, however the cause was unknown.

A week later I left hospital after having a 3 procedures in 1 emergency operation. The whole of the NHS staff who looked after and cared for me from the dieticians, physios through to the consultants were fantastic. The theatre team worked for over 4 hours, not knowing what they were going find, they started with key hole before going onto open surgery. They found a band of adhesions running from under my rib cage down and joining on to the appendix, the adhesions were acting like an elastic band. They removed the adhesions, cleaned the organs they were attached to, fixed a lower hernia and removed my appendix! Honestly, an incredible team to which I'm utterly grateful and now I'm paying it forward.

Walking and hiking in nature has played a big part of my life, the recovery since my operation has been longer than anticipated due to the significant amount of bruising and extent of the op. My fitness levels are not yet back to excellent however I'm more determined than ever to accomplish this walk for Macmillan, getting back to nature.

Santander are proud to be partnering with Macmillan Cancer Support. There are currently 3 million people living with cancer in the UK, with someone receiving a cancer diagnosis every two minutes. We know that one in two people in the UK will experience a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. For more than 100 years Macmillan has been there for people with cancer when they needed them most. Today is no exception! Cancer is not going anywhere. And neither can Macmillan. Join us in supporting Macmillan, so they can keep providing physical, financial, and emotional support to the millions of people that count on them.