Every Autumn I take part in a fundraising challenge to support the care of patients with a terminal diagnosis. Over the past number of years, with help and incredibly generous donations, this has amounted to over £9000 for Marie Curie UK. This is a phenomenal sum of money which will have gone a long way in improving the care and ensuring the dignity of patients requiring palliative care. 

Linking as always with my Mum and the team at Shettleston Health Centre Pharmacy, I will again be raising money to support Marie Curie UK's vital work by completing the Great Scottish Run Half Marathon this October. 

In my own job as a Junior Doctor, I am lucky to be able to work with and learn from the Sir Bobby Robson Clinical Trials Unit, supported by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. This unit runs early phase clinical trials which test new medications for patients with advanced care who have exhausted other options of treatment. Based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this unit handles patient referrals from across the UK, including Glasgow. Development of new drugs is essential in our fight against this cruel disease and, one day, will result in less patients with cancer having a terminal diagnosis. 

In their own words:

"Sir Bobby Robson launched his Foundation to help find more effective ways to detect and treat cancer, after a request for help from his oncologist Professor Ruth Plummer. She was treating Sir Bobby as he faced cancer for the fifth and what he knew would be the final time.  She needed to raise £500,000 to equip a new cancer drug trials centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care in Newcastle upon Tyne and asked him if he knew anyone who might like to donate. Sir Bobby responded by launching a charity to get the money she needed. He described it as like being at the helm of a team again. What he called his last and greatest team."

This September, I will be running the Great North Run Half Marathon to support their continued vital work. 

Any and all donations to either of these excellent causes will go a long way to supporting this patient group and those patients of the future with cancer. 

Sarah