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I don't know if many of you are aware that I only learned to cycle last August and I can probably count on both hands how many times I have been on a bike since then.  So you may be wondering why I am taking on this cycling challenge of 82 km, having just barely managed to balance on two wheels and avoid lamp posts.  

Unfortunately, it was also last August that my dear and very much loved father was diagnosed with the last stage of non-small cell lung cancer.  The shock of the news was gut wrenchingly devastating for our family.  There were no obvious signs before he was diagnosed, but he was complaining of pain in his back for about a year before diagnosis.  The doctor kept sending him for cardiograms and testing his heart and blood pressure.  By the time they figured out it was lung cancer, it was too late.

Of course we all held on to hope of a cure.  We went through round after round of painful chemotherapy with him and watched him turn away from all his favourite food in favour of healing herbs, vitamins and blandness and witnessed his rapid and terrible deterioration and weight loss.  But he held on to hope right up until his very last few days.  He loved life and had many amazing friends and just wanted to live a little longer, to be part of it all and enjoy it.  To our great sorrow, lung cancer took this wonderful, loving and adored man from us on 1 March, 2013, just 6 months after diagnosis.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK.  Each year more than 41,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK, with 35,000 losing their battle.  Whilst it is the second most diagnosed cancer after breast cancer, unfortunately, not enough is being done about treating it.  Cancer Reearch UK has published staggering gaps in the current efforts to find effective treatments for lung cancer sufferers.

Just 4% of the total cancer research budget goes towards lung cancer, even though it represents 13% of diagnosed cancers and 22% of total cancer deaths.

Yes, there is a stigma attached to lung cancer as many people believe that this is a disease brought on by people's own actions through smoking.  But we have to remember that smoking was only recently banned in many public areas globally and was still advertised not so long ago.  Furthermore, 15% of non-small cell lung cancer patients have never touched a cigarette in their lives.  Another cause of the high fatality associated with lung cancer is poor detection rates at stages early enough to provide a cure or at least some effective treatment to manage the disease.

In late April 2013, the Institute of Cancer set up the London Lung Cancer Alliance.  Member organisations plan a programme of research that will ultimately make trials of cutting-edge personalised therapies available to up to 3,000 patients a year newly diagnosed with lung cancer across the capital.

Patients with lung cancer across London will be included in the unique research programme, which will cover the entire lung cancer pathway from the identification and screening of those at risk through to end-stage disease. The London Lung Cancer Alliance will also link up with five other cities across the UK.

I hope this will inspire you to support me in this challenge in memory of my father, who never gave up hope.  This new Alliance will offer much more than hope to lung cancer patients, it will give them the possibility of a future with their loved ones, something my Dad would have cherished.

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